Love Shmuv and all that Gab
by topazring
Summary: “Granger, I know I’m devilishly handsome and compared to Potty and Weasel, I must be breathtaking to your eyes. But all your staring is making me a tad uncomfortable.” -- A Dramione Fic O'course! R & R
1. Chapter 1

A/N: First ever fanfic people! Infact its first thing I've _ever _written aside from essays back at school! So..um..please don't judge too harshly, although constructive criticism is always welcome. But to be honest I prefer reading to writing. I've already written most of it the old fashioned way – yes, in ink and paper- and I'm a lousy typist, which means updating will take some time. And oh, disregard HBP and DH, some facts though remain the same.

Summary : One of my favourite clichés of Dramionedom, Malfoy and Granger – the new HeadBoy and HeadGirl – being forced to share a dorm! Needless to say, tempers flare, egos clash and may be something else brews…a little bit o' love…

Disclaimer : JKR, along with whoever she has sold the rights to, own HP and all the beloved characters. I can just borrow them for a while and play with them a little…sigh.

Chapter One :

"-so Tuesdays and Fridays then, is that ok for you? ...Ron? Ron! Have you even been listening to what I was saying?" Hermione said , pointing the fork in her hand dangerously at her would be victim.

Ron who had been busily shoveling food into his mouth and giving his whole attention to his gastronomical need, turned to look at her, the fork alarmingly close to his nose.

"Wha- what?" he asked hastily, edging away to put some distance between his nose and the prongs.

"You weren't listening, were you?" Hermione said, glaring at the redhead.

"We- well..," Ron stuttered again, casting about for an excuse. "So ,um, what were you asking me about?" he tried meekly.

"If you weren't paying attention then why should I bother!" she snapped angrily, withdrawing her weapon from Ron's face. She speared the pea on her plate and thrust it into her mouth.

Ron turned to his other side to look at Harry, as Hermione chewed on the offending pea noisily, gnashing her teeth. Harry just shrugged and turned his attention to his own plate, deciding to keep out of the fight if he wanted to keep his head intact.

Frowning at his unhelpful friend, Ron turned back to Hermione, who was currently staring at her plate and muttering furiously under her breath, "..the nerve- always ignores- _pig- _well certainly eats like one!.."

He opened his mouth uncertainly- to apologize or to ask why she had knickers in a twist – perhaps she got banned from the library? Ok scratch the second part if he didn't want his nose punctured by a fork, he decided, watching the weapon.

Hermione waited for him to speak, then slammed the fork onto the plate, got up with a "humph!", marched to the other side of the table and sat down beside Lavender and Parvati.

Ron's eyes widened and he turned to look at Harry, who looked a bit shocked too.

"What was all that about?" he whispered hoarsely.

"Dunno, mate," Harry said, looking at Hermione staring moodily at the dessert that had appeared. "But before she was asking if Tuesdays and Fridays would be ok for your Prefect patrol duty, I kinda asked her to schedule them, so it wouldn't clash with our Quidditch practice."

"Oh", Ron said, "that's ok, I s'pose. But seriously, what's up with that hissy fit she just threw?"

Harry just shrugged again.

"She was alright on the train, until that meeting with McGonagall about Head duties, and she's been snapping at everyone ever since," he said frowning. "Wonder what McGonagall must've said to upset her this much"

"Yeah", Ron said. "I was thinking may be she got banned from the library or something!" he was smirking.

"Mate, if that'd had happened she would've burnt this whole castle down!" Harry said grinning.

Hermione shot them a death glare from across the table and they hastily straightened their faces looking scared.

Just then luckily for them, Professor Dumbledore got up from his seat at the staff table to give his customary "Welcome to the School" speech and everyone turned their attention to him – including Hermione.

Ron quickly got bored. He was pulling at a stray thread from his sleeve, when Dumbledore reached the end of his speech.

"And now, congratulations to our new Head Boy and Girl, who happen to be the top students in school," he said and everyone applauded, looking around for the new Heads.

Hermione got up at the Gryffindor table and gave a tight smile. No one seemed surprised, but some were definitely shocked (which included Harry and Ron) when they saw the new Head Boy, who was standing and looking lazily down on lesser mortals (in his opinion) around him, smirk firmly in place, acknowledging the applause like he had just been appointed the Ruler and Master of the entire living world and beyond.

Yup, you guessed it right.

"Draco 'the Ferret' Malfoy! Head Boy! I think I'm going to be sick!" Ron said looking horrified. He indeed looked a bit green when Malfoy sat down ultimately, his expression the height of smugness.

" I know! I thought Ernie would be Head Boy, or even someone else, but not _Malfoy! _When has he ever followed rules?!" Harry said incensed, turning his back to the still cheering Slytherin table. "Well that certainly explains Hermione's bad mood."

Ron didn't answer, he seemed to be still in shock.

Hermione looked over at her best friends' and sighed. This was the reason she hadn't told them who she saw when she went for her meeting with McGonagall. That was quite a nasty shock for her, seeing him smug with the Head Boy batch pinned to the front of his robes and smirking evilly (his trademark, she supposed) at her. She sighed again. Ron and Harry looked shocked and angry, well not as much as she felt anyway, 'coz now she had to _actually _spend time with the git.

Students were rising from their seats and she hastily got up to lead the younger students to their Houses and direct all the other prefects to do the same. Chaperoning a bunch of Gryffindor First years, she saw Ron walking up to her. He gave her a sympathetic smile and she smiled in gratitude for understanding her predicament, her earlier anger at him disappearing. Soon however he was busy leading students out of the Hall.

"Granger," she heard the dreaded drawl and turned around, then quickly jumped back as she found him standing so close that their noses almost brushed.

"Malfoy!", Hermione said indignantly, "what the hell-!"

"Language Granger, language," Malfoy said raising one of his pale eyebrows, looking down at her. "McGonagall wants to speak with us, so I suggest you stop staring googley eyed at Weasleby and come to her office."

He turned around with his nose in the air and walked away towards one of the doors leading out of the Hall.

Hermione looked at the First years gathered around her.

"Hey. It's ok. I'll take them to the dorms. You go meet McGonagall."

Hermione turned to see Harry walking towards her, who had luckily stayed behind.

"Thanks Harry!", she gave him a big smile, "and sorry about earlier, I was just so- so.."

"That's ok. I'd be cranky too if I had found out I was going to be working with that snarky ferret."

Hermione laughed and then waved at him and headed out the door through which Malfoy had exited.

She reached McGonagall's office and knocked on the door and entered. She found that the git was already sitting in a chair (or was he lounging?) idly inspecting his fingernails. He didn't even look up when she came in. She noticed that McGonagall was still not there and took the seat beside Malfoy after making sure to drag it away from him as far as was possible.

Five minutes went past and still no sign of McGonagall. Hermione was staring straight ahead to avoid looking at Malfoy. She was expecting something nasty from his mouth at any second and so, she was preparing a list of comebacks (equally nasty – by Hermione standards anyway – 'coz the prat deserved them and more) that would hopefully sustain her before she lost her patience _and_ sanity and tried to throttle him. Where _was _McGonagall anyway? Hermione thought fidgeting in her seat, didn't she know that she was _alone_ in the room with Satan Jr. himself? _Hello!_ Didn't _anyone_ care for her poor Malfoy-threatened life? If McGonagall doesn't come soon enough to rescue her then she'd have to resort to swear words – but they were the last resort in her book, 'coz Hermione Granger didn't do swear words, thank you very much. Though, she made the exception for Malfoy.

So, she was sitting on the edge of her seat, building up her defenses and preparing a bit of arsenal too, when she heard him yawn widely beside her. She turned to look at him irritated – _no manners at all! _does he _want _her to get his germs or whatever, especially the ones that made him act like stuck up jerk? His legs were outstretched and his arms resting behind his head. He was looking at her lazily. She turned back to stare ahead of her, her brow furrowed, thinking furiously to complete her list before the ambush began.

"What, inconstipation , Granger?" he drawled.

She turned and shot him a glare and slid farther back into the chair and folded her arms tightly across her chest. Then she continued to stare in front of her. Though, she could see from the corner of her eye that Malfoy was still looking at her with stupid smirk still firmly in place. He suddenly straightened up in his chair and leaned close towards her.

"Malfoy!", she cried in alarm, "What are you doing?!"

"Oh, I was just wondering what was so intriguing on that wall you were staring at," he answered calmly looking at the wall in question. His face was so close that she could feel his breath on her cheek. _Yikes! Serious cooties alert! Didn't anyone know what a personal space bubble was, these days?_

"Malfoy!", she shrieked again, "move away from me!". She jumped up from her chair and backed away towards the door.

"Hmm," Malfoy continued unperturbed, still looking at the patch of wall Hermione was apparently staring at. "For a second there I thought that was Weaselby's butt! But, I guess that's just a wall with a crack."

He smirked widely at her.

She narrowed her eyes and sent him a glare that she whole heartedly hoped would banish him to fiery depths of Hell – if he hadn't descended from there in the first place.

Just then the door opened and Professor McGonagall entered the room. Seeing Hermione standing nears the doorway she frowned.

"Miss Granger, I thought I asked you to be present here twenty minutes ago?" she was looking at her sternly, as only she could. _The hypocrite!_ Hermione opened her mouth to explain, but she raised her hand continued, "Well, I called you here to show you to your new living quarters. There was a delay as Professor Dumbledore insisted in certain extra security measures to be applied to the Heads' Quarters". Hermione looked curiously at her Professor. Why would they need extra protection? Surely the security for the Head's rooms were just as much as their old dormitories had provided them, she wondered as McGonagall continued, "the measures won't cause any inconvenience to either of you, you can invite your school mates to visit you at any time you want. And if you follow me, I'll lead you to your rooms", and she walked back out the door as they both hurried after her.

She led them to the third floor and Hermione was having a horrible feeling of deja vu as she remembered the three headed dog that had once guarded the end of this corridor, she felt she was again walking to her doom – surely sharing a dorm with Malfoy constituted a much, much horrible fate than being chewed up by a massive three- headed beast. But McGonagall led them to the opposite side of the corridor then turned left through a narrow hallway which led them down some steps. At the bottom was a plain wooden door – the one that seemed to lead to broom cupboard.

"To anyone who doesn't know your password, this door will open to a broom closet," she said and stopped in front of the door and turned around to face them. "So I suggest you agree on a password, then inform the door first before inviting anyone inside, if you want your guests to find your rooms. Your luggage has already been transferred to your respective rooms. Also there is a library cum reading room for your perusal", she informed and then seemed to hesitate a bit, "and since you'll be living together this year, I expect both of you will put aside you differences and maintain camaraderie and work together as Head Boy and Head Girl of this school are expected to", she said sternly, her mouth already stretched to a thin line. "Well then, I'll be heading back to my office now. Goodnight to you both," with that she ascended the steps and disappeared from view.

"'camaraderie'," Hermione muttered under her breath as Malfoy roughly pushed past her and examined the door. _Yeah right! If that'd ever happen, I might as well then snog Malfoy and marry him!_

Wait! WHAT? Did she just really think that? Ewww…! _Snog?!_ Gross!

_Its just the stress Hermione_, she placated herself, _your brain is a bit whoozy, that's all._

And then she actually thumped the top of her head with her fist. _Ow! That hurt!_ But it certainly destroyed the image forming into her head which had her and Malfoy in a compromising position. _Bad brain! Very bad!_

"Draco Malfoy is the greatest and most handsome wizard in the World."

"What?" she asked raising her brow, while still gingerly rubbing her sore head.

OoOoOoOoO

Howdy, folks!

So didya like it? Or loathe it and wish that I'd stop with my novice writing this instance and go stuff myself or something?

Either way, I'd like to hear from you peahpul!

So, go ahead press that alluring Review button and stroke my inflated ego (hey! Not as much inflated as our dear Draco's!) or er .. prick it and stomp all over it .. ouch!


	2. Chapter 2

A/N : Yowza! Here cometh the second chapter, hope (as I always do) you lot like it, 'coz it'd warm up my cold, post- the-worst-Valentine's-Day-_ever _heart. And by the way, I started writing this on that _wonderfully _lovey-dovey day of the year (am bein' sarcastic here, if you didn't catch my drift)

Disclaimer : Nope not me, JKR owns the whole thing. 'coz if it were my choice the She-weasel would have long since been bumped off (ok … may be not, but at least have faded to the background, where I think she rightly belongs). _sniff. pout._

"_Draco Malfoy is the greatest and most handsome wizard in the World!"_

"_What?" she asked raising her brow, while still gingerly rubbing her sore head._

Chapter Two :

"Draco Malfoy is the greatest and most handsome wizard in the World," he repeated smirking slightly at her.

She looked at him strangely with her brows still raised. "I'm sorry, _what?_" she asked again.

Malfoy's smirk disappeared and his lip curled. "It's the new password Granger, or is your mudblood brain too muddled to understand that?" he spat.

Hermione's eyes flashed dangerously. "Firstly _Ferret_, everyone who knows what a narcisstic arse you are will guess what your _brilliant _password is in a minute and secondly I don't want to burst into hysterical laughter everytime I say that load of crap!"

Malfoy's eyes narrowed so much that they resembled icy slits and his face coloured. "How dare you? You nasty, dirty little –" he began spitefully.

"Malfoy, are you sure you want to finish that sentence? 'coz I'm sure Professor McGonagall would be _so _delighted to hear it that she may get me a new room mate. So please, go ahead and be my guest," Hermione said sweetly smiling, although she was gnashing her teeth.

Malfoy just glared at her, aiming to burn a hole in her head perhaps, and his lip was curled dangerously, but he didn't say anything else.

"Right then", she said at last, "I think we can come up with a_ better_ password later, so I think I'll just go in then", and with that brushed past the furious Malfoy and opened the door to what would be her home for most of that year, away from people she loved and with the added bonus of an irate, highly annoying blond ferret as her room mate. Life couldn't be more perfect.

The opened door revealed a large room, with two desks on opposite sides, few straight backed chairs scattered around and book cases lining the walls.

(A/N: um, wondering why the place is so plain and uptight, well I had to remind myself that it is a _school _dorm and can't be expected to look like a suite in a five star hotel, also I assumed McGonagall had decorated- um, furnished- the place 'coz of the last minute thing and stuff, so there…)

Hermione's anger and stress immediately vanished after seeing rows and rows of large leather bound, musty old books. Well, atleast there was one positive to the whole ordeal, she thought with a happy sigh and excitedly gravitated towards them with glassy eyes.

Malfoy entered the room behind her, scowling, but seeing her act like she had found her lost baby upon noticing the books almost, _almost_ caused him to burst out laughing. But Malfoys _never_ burst out laughing at _anything _–it seemed such a crude and lowly thing to do – so he settled for a smirk, ok_ evil _smirk would be better, he thought and changed his smirk accordingly.

'_Ha! Evil smirk! Take that Granger!'_

Hermione suddenly turned around and noticed Malfoy watching her with his stupid smirk and slightly demented expression. She felt a bit spooked and wondered genuinely about his mental health.

"er…what are you doing Malfoy?" she asked hesitantly.

"What? Is that your standard question to me or something?" he asked, slightly put out, as his evil smirk didn't seem to have the effect he had expected (trembling and groveling for his mercy, if you must know) and it faltered, so that now he was pouting.

"Well you always _are_ upto something..." she said slowly, frowning and looked curiously at him. He then abruptly turned around and marched to the end of the hall which had a door. He opened it and peeked inside, then went in.

"Bathroom," he called from inside it.

After a few minutes, of what Hermione assumed, was his 'inspection', he reemerged into the hall. He looked around, saw Hermione watching his every move and then abruptly walked towards her.

She involuntarily took a step backwards and regarded him apprehensively. He seemed not to notice her and walked past her to the other end of the hall. Here were two doors facing each other on opposite walls. The one to his immediate left was labeled "Head Girl" and the right one said "Head Boy". He opened the right one and seemed to look around in side the room, then he came back out, looked around again and found Hermione still staring at him like he was a fascinatingly twitching dying frog in biology lab-although he didn't know that.

"Granger, I know I'm devilishly handsome and compared to Potty and Weasel, I must be breathtaking to your eyes. But all your staring is making me a tad uncomfortable," he said with that (in)famous smirk of his, then turned on his heel and went into the room, slamming the door shut with a bang, leaving Hermione to look wide-eyed and splutter in his wake.

OoOoOoO

A/N: not much I know. But sweet slumber's acalling. And if I don't sleep now, I'll have neurotic episode. And _that _would be _bad. Very bad. _**yawn**


	3. Chapter 3

A/N : Hullo! Here's the third chapter and I am chuffed that people are actually reading this!

Disclaimer : Its JKR's. And she'd be happy to know that HPs have relegated John Grishams to the second row in my shelf!

_"Granger, I know I'm devilishly handsome and compared to Potty and Weasel, I must be breathtaking to your eyes. But all your staring is making me a tad uncomfortable," he said with that (in)famous smirk of his, then turned on his heel and went into the room, slamming the door shut with a bang, leaving Hermione to look wide-eyed and splutter in his wake. _

Chapter Three :

After a few moments of just standing there stupidly, she gave her head a little shake and looked around.

She was feeling tired, her head ached a bit – though that must have been 'coz of her head thumping, she thought. And living with Malfoy meant that she would be in for a lot of migraines in the future. She sighed. The books would have to wait.

She walked over to her Head Girl room and opened the door. It was larger than her bedroom back at home, it had a four poster bed like that one in her old dorm though instead of the red and gold hangings and sheets these were just white. Her trunk was placed at the foot of the bed. A cupboard stood in a corner. She walked around the bed and pushed aside the crisp white drapes, there was a large window. It was drizzling outside, the glass spotted with little drops of rain. She sighed again, her breath misting the glass.

Well, she thought, she'd better get ready for bed and changed into her pajamas. She fished out her toothbrush from the trunk and headed out of the room for the bathroom.

On her way out to the hall she spotted the door ajar to the opposite room. The room was dark. Malfoy must have gone out somewhere, maybe to the Slytherin common room to get some tips on how best to make her life miserable, not that he needed any, Hermione thought glumly, or may be whine loudly about how he was being forced to share the dorm with a lowly, untouchable creature like her, putting on his martyr act so that Pansy would smile up adoringly up at her _brave _hero, she huffed and walked on towards the bathroom.

She put the clip between her teeth as she twisted and put up her hair with one hand and opened the door with another. And then she froze, her mouth fell open and the clip fell to the floor with a clatter. There before the sink stood Malfoy – _only _in his silk, green boxer shorts – with his back to her. He really was very pale. Hearing the noise Malfoy spun around, his toothbrush dangling from his mouth, his pale cheeks reddening a bit.

"Granger!" he shouted looking furious, "don't you know how to knock?"

Shaken from her state of shock, she immediately shut her eyes tight, "I didn't know you'd be here!" she squeaked, backing out of the room blindly.

"Well, what if I was taking a shower or something? Do you know how horrific that'd have been for me, to let a mudblood see me that way?!" Malfoy was screaming shrilly.

"WHA – eek!" Hermione said, picturing the image and stumbled on the threshold and fell on her back with a _'thump!'._

Just then she heard the door slam shut in her face with Malfoy yelling, "And stay out!", from inside.

She finally opened her eyes, got up shakily and hurried to her room. Throwing back her toothbrush into her trunk and collapsing on the bed, she decided to let dental hygiene go to hell, what she had to do now was to banish the image of Malfoy nearly naked with his wet hair falling into his eyes and his pale flawless skin, his fit body – not bulky but athletic, nice and toned –

WAIT! What! No, no, no, no…..

She groaned, covering her eyes with her hand, Malfoy was _not _attractive!_ What was the world coming to?_ Nope! He was the ferret!

The _ferret_ – pale, blond, tall, with those nasty gray silverish eyes…..

Oh God! Hermione sat up on the bed rubbing her temples. Its just been a long day, she told herself, all I need now is sleep. And with that, she pulled up her sheets, curled up like a tight ball clutching her knees and closed her eyes. Tomorrow will bring some semblance of normalcy to my life, she hoped fervently before falling asleep immediately. But she would never have guessed how wrong she was going to be.

OoOoOoO

A/N: I _know _another short chapter! The next one – hopefully a long one – is being furiously typed, so don't be mad at me.

So there you go, Hermione realizes that our Draco is absolutely scrumptious (delectable, divine, absolutely mouth watering – are some other words to describe)! So how long do you think it takes for her to fall for him? Hmmm….


	4. Chapter 4

A/N : chuffed people, absolutely _chuffed!_ Thanks for reading!

Disclaimer : 'tis JKR's and JKR's only. But sometimes at night, I wish it were mine … sigh…

_Tomorrow will bring some semblance of normalcy to my life, she hoped fervently before falling asleep immediately. But she would never have guessed how wrong she was going to be._

Chapter Four :

Hermione Granger got up the next day, shielding the sun from her eyes with her arm. She lay in, thinking for a moment. She was living with someone she deeply despised (_hate_ is such a strong word); her best friends were happily sleeping four floors above, far away from Malfoy and his insufferable drawl; she now had to share a bathroom with the prat; and in all the melee, she had completely forgotten about her cat, whom she had left with Ginny. She groaned again and rolled out of bed. She checked the time, it was a quarter past seven. She had overslept! She hurried out of the room.

Malfoy's door was ajar again. Having learnt her lesson the hard way, she banged on the bathroom door three times and called out his name, when no answer came out, she breathed a sigh of relief and entered it. She got ready in record time. Malfoy was nowhere around, he must have left for breakfast. She felt relieved, she didn't want to face him yet, after last night's er..little mishap.

She collected her school bag and headed to the Great Hall. It was full when she entered, several students were already leaving to their classes. She spotted Harry and Ron and hurried over to them. She glanced at the Slytherin table as she went by, but didn't find the blond there either.

"How come you're late? You are _never _late," Ron said, pausing on stuffing his mouth with eggs. Hermione felt positively nauseous, especially when she spotted bits of yolk in his mouth.

"Well, I was quite tired yesterday," she said turning away her eyes from him and poured herself some pumpkin juice.

"Hey, how's living with Malfoy? I'm really sorry about that, by the way," Harry was saying, putting the Daily Prophet down.

"Yeah, you let us know if he tries something and we'll take care of him for you," Ron said punching his fist into his palm.

"Thanks," she said, struggling not to roll her eyes at him. Did he think that she couldn't handle little slime balls like Malfoy herself? _Hmmph!_ She could handle and kick ass a _dozen _of slime balls, thank you very much. "But I think that won't be necessary," she said biting into her toast.

"We'd better hurry," Harry said picking up his bag. "Potions starts in ten minutes and Snape would just love to dock a hundred points off us on the first day."

With that the three of them got up and hurried to class, Hermione finishing up her toast on the way to the dungeons.

They entered the Potions classroom just in time as the bell rang and quickly took their regular seats at the back of the class. Parvati and Lavender, who were sitting in the seats in front of them, turned around and smiled widely at Hermione.

"Hi Hermione! Congratulations on being the new Head Girl!" they chorused.

"er… thanks."

Just then Snape entered the room and everyone stopped talking.

Parvati and Lavender smiled again, Lavender winked at Hermione, then they both turned to the front of the class. Hermione raised her eyebrows at Lavender's back. Harry and Ron didn't seem to notice it.

Snape was already writing the ingredients of the potion they were going to make today on the black board, and everyone hurried to copy it down. Soon everyone was busy with their potions bubbling in their cauldrons.

Hermione was adding beetles to her potion and watch it turn green slowly, when Harry leaned in and whispered, "So, where are the Heads' Quarters, anyway? Can we come and visit?"

"They're on the third floor. Of course, you can come visit any time you want. But first we have to decide on a password, else McGonagall said it won't open to visitors," she whispered back and Harry nodded, adding beetle to his own potion which turned green too, but not as textbook perfect green as Hermione's.

Hermione looked over at Ron, who was glumly looking into his potion which was a bright sunflower yellow.

As if on cue, Snape swooped in on them after berating Neville for his potion, which was neither green nor yellow, but belonged to the opposite side of the spectrum and was_ pink_.

Well somethings never change.

Snape looked down his hook-like nose at Ron as he scooped some of his potion out with a ladle. He curled his lip and marked his grade onto the mark sheet – it suspiciously seemed like a 'D'. He passed on Harry's and Hermione's cauldrons without comment and Harry looked more than relieved. Snape glided onto the next table.

"_Excellent _work, Mr.Malfoy," Snape was saying, peering into Malfoy's cauldron. "An 'O', I must say," he said marking it elaborately onto the sheet, as Malfoy gave him one of his flattering smiles. "A well deserved grade for our new Head Boy. And congratulations for that Mr.Malfoy," Snape said, looking smug, as though _he _had been appointed as the Head Boy. Half the class (read Gryffindors) rolled their eyes at this and the rest (read Slytherins) were grinning and nodding appreciatively.

"Thank you, Professor," Malfoy drawled, smirking widely and sneering at the Gryffindors. Pansy, who was working next to him, was dazedly looking up and seemed to be batting her eyelashes at him. This almost made Hermione throw up in her cauldron.

The bell rang and everyone rushed out of the classroom. Harry, Hermione and Ron were shunted sideways in the hallway as Malfoy and his gaggle of hero-worshippers (with Pansy clinging to his arm and fawning over him) pushed past them, Malfoy making a point to sneer at the trio as he went past.

"Stupid git!" Ron called out angrily after him.

"Ignore him Ron, he's just a pompous little ass," Hermione said, loudly enough for him to hear.

"Yeah", Harry agreed, "let's go. We're going to be late for our next class."

And after that, thankfully they didn't have any classes with the Slytherins and Hermione enjoyed the 'Malfoy-less' hours until dinner. Harry and Ron ate quickly and went off for their Quidditch practice. Hermione was serving mashed potatoes onto her plate when Parvati and Lavender sat down on either side of her.

"Hey Hermione!" they sang again.

"Hey," she said reluctantly.

"_So_…..?" Parvati said looking excited.

"So, what ?" Hermione said frowning.

"So, is it true?" Lavender asked giggling.

"What is true?" Hermione asked patiently, sipping from her goblet.

"Is it true that Malfoy sleeps in the _nude_?" they said together.

Hermione choked and spluttered and thumped her own head again.

"_What?_" she asked, looking incredulously at them.

"Oh, come now, tell us if its true or not. You're after all sharing a dorm with him. You must know," Lavender said.

"_So?_", Hermione spluttered, "that doesn't mean that I spy on him when he's sleeping!"

"Ok, ok", Parvati said waving her hand impatiently, "so you don't know". She looked a bit put out.

"But Hermione", Lavender was saying looking keenly at her, "you're _so _lucky to share a dorm with him."

Hermione snorted, "Yeah, you've no idea!", she muttered under her breath.

Lavender didn't seem to listen and continued, "I mean just look at him," she said glancing over at Malfoy at the Slytherin table, who was animatedly describing something as his audience listened with rapture.

"Yeah", Parvati sighed, "definitely the hottest guy in school."

Hermione was looking at the pair beside her like they were insane.

"Oh, _come on!_", Lavender whined, catching Hermione's expression, "we_ know _he's a total jerk – "

"Too right!" Hermione said fervently.

" – but looks wise, he's like the teenaged Adonis! I mean just look at that perfect hair and that body…..", and she stared into space dreamily.

"Don't forget the eyes, they're like – like _a cloud in a thunder storm_…," Parvati said spacing out herself.

Both of them sighed together.

Hermione who had been watching Malfoy say something to his group of admirers and Pansy bursting into laughter so loudly that people across the hall were turning to look at her, turned and looked at Parvati and Lavender with a frown.

"Have you two gone completely bonkers?", she said seriously, "we're talking about the _ferret_ here! He's _not _Adonis! He's a slimy, pale haired, egoistical, insufferable git," she finished.

But this didn't seem to have any effect on the two as they were still staring into space.

Hermione shook her head unbelievingly – _poor souls – _then got up from the table to leave the Hall. She glanced again at the Slytherin table, Malfoy was chuckling at something, while Pansy proceeded to feed him pie with her spoon. _Seriously,_ could that girl lower herself anymore, Hermione thought disgusted.

OoOoOoO

A/N : there you go, another chapter. I really hope I can finish typing this story soon enough so that I can give my fingers some rest. (I _really _hate typing)

Thanks again for reading! I'm on _cloud no9_!

Oh, and please review guyz.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer : still JKR's. ……………… anyhoo …..

_Hermione shook her head unbelievingly – poor souls – then got up from the table to leave the Hall. She glanced again at the Slytherin table, Malfoy was chuckling at something, while Pansy proceeded to feed him pie with her spoon. Seriously, could that girl lower herself anymore, Hermione thought disgusted._

Chapter Five :

Once out in the Entrance Hall, she pondered on going to the library, but then Hermione remembered that she had to fetch Crookshanks from the Common room and anyway, she was dying to explore the book shelves in her own dorm, later.

Once in the Common room, she spotted Crookshanks right away, curled in front of the fireplace. She sat down beside him and scratched behind his ears.

"Missed me?" she asked the furry, ginger cat as he mewled lazily.

He didn't seem too upset upon not seeing her for an entire day. That's why, she thought, she preferred a cat as her pet. They were independent and not needy nor did they grovel helplessly if you are away even for a moment.

She picked him up from the middle. "Time to go to our new home," she said as he purred in question.

She took him down to the dorm and put him on top of one of the study tables and left him to familiarize himself to the new surroundings, while she took a book from the shelf and began scanning through it. A while later the door opened again, but she was too absorbed in her book and didn't look up. Suddenly –

"Aaaargh!", Malfoy was screaming, "what is this _monstrosity_ doing in my dorm?"

Hermione looked up from her book which was about medieval Potion Making, to see Malfoy standing in the middle of the room, shielding his face with his arms, staring horrified at Crookshanks, who was eyeing Malfoy steadily from his perch on the table.

Hermione moved forwards and scooped Crookshanks up.

"Malfoy, this is _our _dorm", she said calmly, "and this Malfoy, is _my _cat."

He lowered his arms and looked nervously at Crookshanks in Hermione's arms. Then he glared at her.

"Look here Granger, this thing has to go! I hate cats!" he said angrily.

"_Really?_" she said, sounding genuinely surprised, _ha! Something atlast to scare the little devil with! Gotcha now!_

"Well I can't do anything about it as he's my cat and he's going to stay with me in this dorm."

"No way! Granger, I won't allow it! That thing can't stay here. I'm going to make a complaint to McGonagall!" he said heatedly and turned on his heel to head for the door.

"And say _what_ exactly?", she asked raising her eyebrow, "cats are very much allowed as pets in this school, Malfoy. And unless you are deadly allergic to them (_ha! I wish!)_ or something, there's nothing you can do", she said evenly, standing her ground.

Malfoy paused on his way out. Then spun around, crossing his arms.

"Fine!" he said loudly, his eye was twitching. "But if that fiend of yours comes anywhere near me, I will hex him _and _you to the next century," he said in a low, dangerous voice.

"That's ok. Crookshanks doesn't go near prats," she said sweetly as Crookshanks seemed to purr in agreement.

Malfoy just stood and glared at the pair of them for a moment, before storming into his room and banging the door shut.

Hermione sighed and put Crookshanks back on the table.

"Can you, may be, bite him for me sometime?" she asked him hopefully. Crookshanks meowed, which she took as a 'yes' and scratched behind his ears, happily.

She picked up the book and returned to the paragraph she was reading before Malfoy had disturbed her. It was a fascinating book, it explained how the practice of using human blood and organs were banned from potion making and all forms of magic and were only exclusively used in the most horrific forms of Dark Arts. She skimmed through the text again. there was something on Amortensia, it said how that the potion was banned for several hundreds of years and there was a death penalty on brewing or administering the Love Potion after it was used on a nobleman's daughter and she lost her mind when the culprit was executed. Hmmm..interesting Hermione thought and flipped through the book enthusiastically.

Just then Malfoy re-entered, wearing a black silk bath robe. She glanced up at him from her book. He hurried through the hall, glaring evilly at Crookshanks, who was stretching luxuriously on the table, and headed into the bathroom and shut the door. Must everything he possess be made of silk? Are even his socks made of silk? Hermione wondered idly. Then she caught herself staring at the bathroom door, wondering if he was wearing his green boxers again. she shook her head violently and mentally hit herself, which was, she reasoned, less painful than physically hitting herself on the head – her head was quite sore.

She had to _stop_ thinking about Malfoy and his stupid boxers, she thought furiously and justified in blaming Parvati and Lavender for corrupting her thoughts.

Feeling a headache coming on again, she decided to hit the sack and put the book back in the shelf. She headed to her room, yawning, with Crookshanks jumping down and following her at her heels.

She sighed as her head hit the pillow and felt Crookshanks curl up near her feet. She lay still for a few moments. Malfoy was still in the bathroom and it seemed like he wouldn't re-emerge from there for quite some time. This makes it the second night in a row that she had gone to bed without brushing her teeth and if this goes on, she thought idly, her parents would be more than horrified when she would return home. Ah well, she thought closing her eyes, you can't have everything in life, especially when Malfoy's in the vicinity.

She woke up early enough the next day, thanks to Crookshanks who had leapt onto her sheets. So she stood up massaging her ribs (hey, the cat was _huge_) and grumbling, as Crookshanks paid no attention and walked out the door with his snout in the air, of having accomplished his task successfully. She followed him blearily out after collecting her things, into the hall and headed into the bathroom.

If she was up so early, she might as well go to the library and get started on her Potions' homework (due the next week), she thought sleepily brushing her teeth. She bent around the shower curtain and turned the shower on, the water was nice and hot. She undressed and quickly got under it, closing the curtain around her. She was just working lather into her hair and humming some song whose name she couldn't remember at the moment, when Malfoy burst into the bathroom.

It was Hermione's turn to scream at the top of her lungs. She clutched the curtain around her tightly and thanked Heavens that the room was now steamy.

"_So sorry,_" Malfoy said loudly, not sounding sorry at all.

"You pig! You did this on purpose didn't you? What is this, some sort of revenge for the other day?! You're absolutely insane – you horrible, horrible – " Hermione was screeching, looking around for something to hit him with.

"Don't know you're talking about, Granger" he said loudly interrupting her.

"So you couldn't hear the shower running?" she screeched.

"No," he said, and though she couldn't see him clearly, she could just make out his stupid smirk. She snapped.

She threw the bar of soap aiming at his stupid head. Malfoy, who didn't see it due to all the steam, got hit right on his nose.

"Ow!" he shouted clutching his face.

"Get out! Out!" she screamed, throwing the loofah at him next.

He hurried out of the bathroom, closing the door. Hermione slumped against the tiled wall and managed to get her breath under control.

Outside in the hall, Malfoy removed his hands from his face and felt his nose gingerly, muttering "crazy woman!". Feeling not much damage done, he smirked (evilly, ofcourse!), and if there's one thing Malfoys never let go off, he thought, listening to the shower running in the bath, is _revenge_ – sweet, sweet revenge!

Hermione stepped shakily out from the shower, dried herself with the towel and dressed. If only she could have remembered to grab her wand from the bedside table, she thought angrily, Malfoy would have parts of him cursed into oblivion!

She stepped out of the bathroom, wrapping the towel around her head. She spotted him lounging in one of the chairs, his feet up on the table, reading the Daily Prophet.

She controlled herself with all her might to not throttle his neck. Breathing heavily through the nose she headed for her own room.

"Oh, Good Morning Granger," Malfoy said pleasantly, lowering the paper.

She appeared not to pay attention to him and marched to her room.

"Oh, Granger", Malfoy called out again, "we still have to come up with a password, you know"

"…"

"How do you think 'naked cat lady' sounds?" he asked smirking as Hermione banged her door shut.

She stomped her foot so hard on the floor that it really hurt. "Stupid ferret!" she seethed and proceeded to dress herself, thinking of various violent ways to kill him. She was so distracted that it took several attempts to dress herself properly and by the time she came out of the room Malfoy had already disappeared to breakfast.

_Good riddance, _she thought furiously.

She got to the Great Hall and banged her bag onto the table, making food fly everywhere.

"Woah! What's wrong with you?" Ron asked looking up at her in surprise, and several others at the table were turning to look at her curiously too.

She didn't answer and plonked down onto the seat beside him, pulling a plate towards herself.

"Did Malfoy do something?" Ron persisted, looking at her dump eggs onto her plate.

She just gnashed her teeth in reply.

"er…. Hermione?" Harry said looking over at the Slytherin table where Malfoy was chatting with Blaise Zabini. "Did you punch Malfoy or something? I mean, his nose looks a bit red," he added hastily.

Hermione stopped mutilating her eggs and turned around herself and noted with satisfaction that Malfoy's nose indeed seemed pink and swollen.

"You _did_, didn't you?!" Ron exclaimed happily, watching him too.

"Ron, if I _had_ punched Malfoy, his nose would have been _broken_ and not merely swollen," she replied nastily, turning around to her eggs.

"Aww…", Ron seemed disappointed, "don't worry, you can break his nose some other time, cheer up."

"So _did_ Malfoy do something?" Harry asked looking at her.

Hermione paused to chew, "um… you know the usual," she said evasively.

Harry patted her arm sympathetically.

Ron, who didn't seem to be finished with the matter went on, "I mean he's such a prat. He thinks he owns the universe or something", he ranted, "'_wait till my father hears about this'!_"he said in a nasal drawl imitating Malfoy, which was so ridiculous that Harry burst out laughing and Hermione couldn't help but smile. Feeling slightly better, she turned around and caught Malfoy looking at her over his cereal bowl. He quickly looked away and seemed to engage Blaise in conversation again. Shrugging she turned back to her eggs.

OoOoOoO

A/N: ha! Revenge, sweet, sweet revenge!

So,if you want to stay safe from mine and Draco's evil clutches _review_ – yes, **review!**

Oh, puhlease!!

Again, thanks for reading guyz!


	6. Chapter 6

A/N : howdy folks! This is the fourth chapter I've updated today and I need some appreciation (read loads of reviews)!

A warning though this isn't exactly a 'sunshine n butterflies' chapter so, be prepared for some drama.

Disclaimer : If I was JKR, why would I be writing fanfic for my own books?

_Feeling slightly better, she turned around and caught Malfoy looking at her over his cereal bowl. He quickly looked away and seemed to engage Blaise in conversation again. Shrugging she turned back to her eggs._

Chapter Six :

The rest of the week seemed to pass peacefully enough without any confrontations, although that may have been 'coz Malfoy was rarely present in their dorm. Though he invariably seemed to occupy the bathroom at nights – doing God knows what – making it impossible for Hermione to accomplish her night time dental hygiene schedule. Her parents, being responsible dentists, instilled in her that failing to keep ones pearly whites in prime condition would result in a death knell for the teeth. So, Hermione was plagued with horrendous dreams of toothless jaws. And Hermione Granger loved her pearly whites thank you very much. So, she resolved the matter by rushing after dinner to the dorm to brush, when Malfoy would be absent. It was a small sacrifice anyway, considering that now she didn't have to lose her teeth nor wrestle Malfoy out of the bathroom.

Being Head Girl meant that she didn't have to patrol the corridors on school nights any more, which she didn't consider as a big incentive as she had to do it on Saturdays and Sundays now. And being the days off, the students were more rowdier and that meant a lot of work for the her. And therefore, she groaned as she got up from the large, cushy armchair she had transfigured, and put the book she was reading after dinner, back on the shelf. And to make matters worse she had to do the patrolling alongside Malfoy. He hadn't spoken to her at all these past few days – nope, not even a friendly scathing insult, which she thought was a big improvement. She checked the time. He hadn't yet come to the dorm. Well, she thought, she might as well go and hope that he showed up – or not.

A half an hour went past and still no sign of Malfoy. Well trust Malfoy to skive off duty, she thought sourly. Just then she felt the skin on the back of her neck prickle, like someone was watching her from the shadows. Her breath quickened as she removed her wand from within her robes. She heard a door creek open somewhere in the dark. She felt someone coming towards her from behind. Her grip on the wand tightened and she gulped. She suddenly felt a draught of air on her neck and she spun around, thrusting her wand at her would-be attacker.

"Bloody hell, Granger!" she heard the drawl.

"_lumos,_" she said and saw him frowning at her, her wand right between his eyes.

"Malfoy!", she breathed hoarsely. "What are you doing, jumping out at me like that?" she said clutching at her racing heart.

"I wasn't 'jumping out at you'," he quoted in air with his fingers, moving away so that the light from her wand didn't blind him any more. "Wasn't I supposed to patrol with you, or have you forgotten?"

"so nice of you to show up finally," she snarled and turned away, she marched on angrily, breathing heavily through the nose. She held up her wand in front of her and peered through the light as she heard something fall in the distance with a 'clang'.

"Peeves," Malfoy suddenly breathed beside her.

"Malfoy!", she squeaked, clutching at her heart again, "would you _stop _doing that!"

He rolled his eyes and took out his wand and lit it too.

They walked cautiously forward. Knowing Peeves, he could swoop down on them at any moment. Suddenly there was a series of clanging noise, coming from somewhere down the hall. Hermione looked nervously above her to check to see if Peeves was floating up there, ready to hurl something heavy at them. But there was no one. She glanced at Malfoy, the noises getting closer and closer as they moved on, he glanced sideways at her and gave a little nod. They held their wands a little higher.

There, in front of them stood an old rickety wooden wardrobe. Even as the wand light washed over it, it stumbled forward and hit back the wall with a clang. Malfoy lowered his wand and stepped forwards.

"Must be a trapped cat or something. May be its that ugly Filch's ….ah well," he drawled and put his wand away, to open the wardrobe.

Hermione just stood where she was , frowning at the rocking wardrobe.

"Malfoy, I don't think it's a cat in there," she said slowly.

But Malfoy had already thrown the doors open. There was a gust of wind that shocked Hermione and she stepped back onto the hem of her robes and fell down to the floor, her wand also falling down with a clatter and extinguishing the remaining light.

"Malfoy! Where are you?" she called out in panic. She sat up and looked around in the dark.

Just then an eerie blue light filled the room. It seemed to be coming from within the wardrobe. She could see Malfoy's pale face in it, staring wide eyed at something inside the wardrobe.

"Mal - ?" she began again, but she seemed to lose her voice when she saw Malfoy take a step backwards with the same horrified expression. For from within that old, wooden wardrobe a outstretched hand emerged, slowly followed by a figure – who seemed to be the source of the light.

It was a woman! Hermione noted with shock. She was tall and seemed to be emaciated, her cheeks, once rosy were now hollow like her blue eyes, which were glassy and without any life and staring straight ahead. Her long golden blonde hair was lank and dripping wet. Her robes were damp too, and tattered. Her raised arm was thin, joints jutting out, her skin was very pale with prominent green veins. She seemed to be pointing in front of her. Hermione looked over at Malfoy, who was standing rooted to the spot, his mouth slightly gaping.

The figure whispered something with her blue, cold lips and Malfoy fell to his knees, clutching the hem of her clothes and burying his face in them.

Hermione suddenly understood, as the woman lowered her hand onto Malfoy's head, as he sobbed desperately into her robes.

"Malfoy!", Hermione called out urgently, "_its not real_! Step back away from her!"

But he seemed not to have listened to her. She desperately searched for her fallen wand on the ground. She found it and stood up quickly.

"Malfoy" she called again to the shivering figure ahead, but no response. She stepped forward shakily and pointed the wand at him.

"'_impedimenta',"_ she called out and Malfoy was thrown back several feet. He seemed to be limp. But Hermione had no time, as the woman turned her hollow eyes to her, and suddenly she was gone, but now there was a red haired figure in its place.

It was tall too and seemed to tower over her. Its hair was swaying making it more ruffled, even though there was no wind. It had an uncharacteristic nasty smirk on its freckled face and seemed to be looking down its long nose at her.

"I would _never_ choose you!" it said in a low voice, though Hermione heard every word clearly.

It was leering at her, "_no one_ will ever choose you. Just look at you," it said wrinkling its nose in disgust. "You are an insufferable know-it-all! you can never measure upto girls like Lavender. Face it, no one will ever want you! _You are ugly!_" it spat so venomously, she coiled back even though she knew it was just an illusion. Her breath coming raggedly, she watched the figure laugh cruelly at down at her, she clenched her jaw determinedly and pointed the wand at it. "_'riddikulus',_" she called out clearly even though her mouth was dry and quickly said, "ha!". The freckled face vanished from in front of her with a _pop_.

She drew back slowly until she met the cold wall. She hugged herself tightly and struggled to bring her breathing under control, staring at the now empty and still wardrobe. From the corner of her eye she saw Malfoy rise slowly from the floor a few feet beside her. He seemed to be standing still, Hermione turned to look at him and their eyes met.

"Are you alright? Sorry for hexing you," she said nervously. Malfoy looked at her intently, then abruptly gave a little nod then looked down his robes and began dusting them with his hands. He paused, staring at the cold, dark floor, then turned around and disappeared into the shadows, even before she could say anything else to him.

OoOoOoO

A/N: ooh, drama! I guess I had bit too much choc ice cream while writing this.

Anyhoo….. review and review.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N : hey, another chapter for you guys! 'coz I luv u! (and this is my day off and I'm procrastinating on studying). Bit of drama in this chap too…

Hope you like it!

Big, slurpy kiss!

Disclaimer : would you _even _believe if I said that I owned HP? Well then…

_He paused, staring at the cold, dark floor, then turned around and disappeared into the shadows, even before she could say anything else to him._

Chapter Seven :

Hermione sighed and buried her face in her hands. She felt a burning in her throat and struggled to keep her emotions under check. She checked the time on her wristwatch. There was still some time until the patrol ended. But she felt drained and thought better to give her mind some rest.

So she straightened up and headed to the dorm, her feet carrying her of their on accord and her mind swirling with thoughts and emotions.

She didn't find Malfoy anywhere in the dorm. She lay on her bed. Crookshanks was nowhere to be seen either. She closed her eyes, thinking about Malfoy and his mother, for she realized that the form of the woman that the Boggart had taken was none other than Narcissa Malfoy. She shuddered involuntarily as she remembered her hollow, dead eyes. Malfoy's greatest fear was his mother turning into an inferi. She suddenly felt a pang of pity, for the first time in the years she had known him, for Malfoy. No one should have to fear such a horrific fate for their mother, she thought sadly.

Hermione felt sad for him and imagined him skulking through dark corridors and picturing his mother's lifeless face again and again.

She turned onto her side and brought her knees upto her chest, hugging them with her arms and sighed sadly again, before slipping into sleep filled with nightmares about dead, cold hands and a certain red head laughing cruelly.

She woke up the next morning, feeling more tired than ever due to her disturbed sleep. She sat up and swung her legs down by the side of her bed. She had left the door open last night and could see that Malfoy's door was ajar as well, which meant that he hadn't returned to the dorm the previous night. She breathed out heavily and stood up. She was in a dilemma about speaking with him about last night's incident, but that would mean bringing up her Boggart as well, and she was not ready to discuss with _Malfoy _of all the people about the matter.

She sighed again then dressed and headed for breakfast.

Being a Sunday, there were only a few early risers digging into their breakfast lazily. Hermione looked around and was surprised to find Malfoy sitting at his Slytherin table, he had shadows under his eyes and seemed paler than usual. He was dully playing with his food.

Hermione had half a mind to go and talk to him, but decided against it and sat down at the Gryffindor table instead. She buttered her toast, occasionally glancing at the morose blond, who was still staring down into his breakfast.

"Hi Hermione!"

She turned around quickly to find a sleepy looking Ginny yawning at her.

"Good Morning, Gin," Hermione smiled at the red head taking the seat beside her. "You're up early today?"

Ginny just shrugged, reaching for a toast. Sensing something wrong, Hermione frowned at her.

Ginny looked up in the process of applying copious amounts of jam to her toast and caught Hermione looking at her questioningly. She put down her toast and sighed.

"OK", she said, "I broke up with Dean last night."

"What! But why?" Hermione asked, her eyes widening.

Ginny shrugged again. "He caught me speaking with Michael Corner yesterday and went ballistic, even though I tried to tell him that nothing was going on", she explained, "and anyway, I always thought it'd never work between us, in the end I just got tired of it all and dumped him," she said picking up her toast and taking a small bite. "Ron would be happy," she noted quietly.

Hermione patted her arm sympathetically.

"Ron wouldn't be the only one to be happy," she said giving her a meaningful smile.

Ginny appeared not to listen to her, although her blush gave her away.

"Anyway", she said after a while. "I'd better go and get ready. I promised Luna, we'd work together on the Transfiguration essay in the library today," she said standing up.

Hermione nodded as she watched her leave the Hall. Her eyes immediately fell on Malfoy, who had got up from the table and was walking morosely out and the absence of his usual i-own-the-whole-bloody-world strut was odd to say the least.

She sat indecisively, her fingers drumming on the table. She stood up abruptly before she lost nerve, and made up her mind to after him. She hurried to the doors from which he had disappeared.

Just as she stepped onto the threshold, she bumped into someone.

"Ouch! Watch where you're going, will you?"

"S-sorry!" she said disentangling herself from the fallen body.

"Hermione?" the voice sounded surprised.

"Ron?!" she exclaimed straightening herself.

"Where are you off to in such a hurry?"

"Oh…um..," she said staring at him, it was disconcerting seeing him after what happened last night. "..forgot something..um..in the library", she said looking away, "so – so where's Harry?" she asked not seeing him around.

"Oh, Harry said he had some work to do in the library," Ron shrugged.

This made Hermione raise her brows, since when had Harry done homework early on a Sunday morning and that too after the first week!

Ron clearly was not disturbed by this, "'K then, I'd better go and eat," he said nodding towards the Great Hall.

"Yeah, see you later," she called watching him go inside.

She hurried forward, but Malfoy had long since disappeared. She tried a few empty classrooms along the way, but there was no sign of the blond. Sighing, she thought she might as well go the library herself.

She saw Ginny and Luna sitting at a table working on their essays, atleast Ginny seemed to be working – Luna was humming to herself and watching the dust patterns in the ray of light from the window, enthralled.

Hermione found Harry a couple of shelves away, buried in a large book.

"'_**Quidditch through the Ages'**__ again_?" Hermione asked raising her eyebrow, reading the title of the book. "I thought Ron said you were working?"

"er… I got bored," he said in a small voice, slightly cowering from her. She sat beside him looking a bit patronizing.

She took the Potions' book lying ignored next to him and started working on her essay. He took the cue and reluctantly started on his as well.

After sometime, she noticed him looking distractedly over her shoulder. Frowning, she peered around the book shelf behind her, a mane of red hair caught her eye and she smiled to herself.

"You know Harry", she said quietly, having caught him looking again, "she broke up with Dean yesterday."

"Wha..? What are you talking about?" he said quickly bending down to his book.

Hermione stared severely at him.

Harry sighed and looked up to face her. "Yeah, I heard Dean telling Seamus last night," he said looking abashed.

"You know you can ask her out now. She's been waiting for that for ages."

Harry didn't answer but returned to his book blushing furiously. She smiled at this.

"By the way, there's a Hogsmeade visit the weekend next," she said continuing to write on her roll of parchment.

"Just saying!" she added mischievously when he looked questioningly at her.

Having finished the Potions' essay atlast, Hermione was happy and agreed at once when Ron suggested that they visit Hagrid, at lunch.

So with their pockets heavy with Hagrid's notorious rock cakes, they returned to the castle for dinner.

She went back to the dorm, looking at her watch anxiously. She hoped Malfoy would show up before patrol time began. She had no idea of what she would say to him, or indeed if he had any inclination to listen to what she had to say, but knew she had to try – if not for anything but to ease her own mind. Time went by, but still no sign of Malfoy. Disappointed, she headed out, this meant that she had to hunt for him in the dark corridors.

But the elusive blond was nowhere to be seen. Feeling a bit glum, Hermione proceeded to do the patrol alone. She was heading down a hallway, when she heard a series of bangs from somewhere at the end of the corridor and paused. _deja vu_ did you say? She took her wand out and waited, the bangs grew louder and suddenly she heard a high pitched cackle. She ducked just in time into a nearby classroom, as Peeves swooshed around laughing hysterically at some mischief he had apparently caused. Closing the door quietly behind her, she pressed her ear to the door, Peeves seemed to be bouncing along the corridor.

Deciding to take refuge in the classroom until danger had passed, she turned around and gasped – "_Malfoy!_"

OoOoOoO

A/N: oh, God! I'm having serious doubts about my writing skills and to be honest was not much satisfied with chapter. What do you think?

Anywaz m'love, review.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N : I'm so happy that this story is actually being read that I've been smiling non stop and now my cheeks hurt! (your cue to say _'awww!'_)

Anywaaz…I'm going to try and post most of this fic as fast as I can, 'coz I'm gonna be busy from the next week 'til maybe a couple of months … so.. I'd absolutely love it if you guyz sent me lots n lots of reviews!

Thanx for reading!

Disclaimer : I neither own a castle nor do I have millions of pounds stashed away and I still have to beg my _parents_ to buy me a new laptop … so take the cue.

_Deciding to take refuge in the classroom until danger had passed, she turned around and gasped – "Malfoy!"_

Chapter Eight :

Hermione immediately closed her mouth with her hands and nervously glanced at the door.

"What are you doing here?" she whispered hurrying forwards.

Malfoy didn't answer. He was sitting on one of the benches to the front of the class. His hair was disheveled as though he had run his hand repeatedly through it. He seemed to be glaring at her – she couldn't tell as his hair was falling into his eyes. He pointed his wand at the door and called out, "_'silencio!'_"

"Good thinking," Hermione said nodding at the door. Again he didn't answer her.

She stood there, pulling distractedly at her hair and nervously biting her lower lip.

"Granger", he spat atlast, "is there something you want to say? Or do you just want to annoy me with your mudblood presence?"

Hermione stared at him for a moment, surprised – _why the hell was he angry with her?_

"So _sorry_ to annoy your _lordship_ with my presence," she snapped narrowing her eyes, bristling at the insufferable prat. "Oh, and weren't you _supposed_ to patrol today instead of resting on your butt?" she added acidly, all her previous compassion towards him vanishing.

"Sod off mudblood!" he spat, jumping down from his perch. He walked towards the blackboard with his hands in his pockets, "you can go and bitch to McGonagall for all I care!"

Hermione shook her head unbelievingly, and to think she wanted to console the bastard, she thought furiously. She turned on her heel to exit the room, then paused, clenching her jaw and marched right upto the blackboard. She reached up and turned the blond around forcibly to face her.

"You know what Malfoy?", she seethed as he looked at her in surprise, "you are the most bigoted, ignorant conceited person I've ever seen in my life!" she said feeling all the pent up anger and frustration at him for the past six years bursting through her atlast. "All these years of ranting about your _'pureblood supremacy'_, have you _ever_ paused to notice that a muggle-born can be as good as you or even much better? Or that your whole 'mudblood' theory comes from a man who is himself a half-blood and does not hesitate to murder anyone, regardless if they are pureblooded or muggleborn? Admit it Malfoy, all your life you've been acting on the propaganda of a few selfish, insecure wizards. And that's pathetic – of not having an opinion of your own. It makes me sick! But more than that, it makes me feel sorry for you. You're nothing but a coward, Malfoy – afraid to stand up against evil! Even though it's clear you fear it as much anyone of us. It's the evil, Malfoy, that will result in making your Boggart true, but I don't think you have the courage to stop that fate for your mother!"

At the last few words, Malfoy seemed to come out of his state of shock, he whirled her around gripping her arms painfully. Hermione's head swam as she bumped it on the board.

"Don't you _dare _talk about my mother!" he hissed, shaking her violently. "You don't know _anything_! You don't know anything about me! You don't know what it feels like, when your own mother is threatened to be murdered in front of your eyes. You don't – " he said shakily, his lips were shivering and his eyes were bright. He let her go abruptly and turned around, his shoulders slumped and were shaking.

Hermione's head throbbed painfully where it had been hit. She looked at the figure before her. She reached out a hand and placed it tentatively on his shoulder. She was surprised when he didn't flinch away from her touch.

"Malfoy," she called out gently.

"D-draco," she tried again, his name feeling foreign to her lips. "I'm sorry", she said quietly, "I'm sorry about your mother, no one deserves to go through that."

He turned around slowly to face her. His eyes were shining, a strange emotion in them. She stared mesmerized for a moment. Just then there was a loud bang somewhere in the distance.

"Peeves," she breathed glancing at the door. "He must have broken something large, Filch will be here in a minute," she said looking at him. His eyes were guarded again.

"er… I think we should leave Filch to handle Peeves," she suggested.

He nodded and made to head out of the room, Hermione following him after a moment. They headed to the dorm in silence.

"er…um… Good Night," she called out hesitantly opening her bedroom door. Malfoy merely nodded in reply again.

She woke up the next morning, yawning after Crookshanks had woken her up in customary fashion. He seemed to have returned sometime in the night. She headed out the door, stifling another yawn with her hand. She stumbled sleepily and managed to stub her toe on one of the chairs in her path. She cursed, as she hopped around on her other leg.

"Well someone seems to be in a cranky mood today," Malfoy called out, emerging from his room and looking in amusement at the scene.

Hermione huffed and put down her foot, bending her toe gingerly.

"A very Good Morning to you, by the way," he said pleasantly.

Hermione looked up in surprise at the evident lack of sarcasm.

"um… Good Morning," she said atlast. She proceeded on her way to the bathroom, when Malfoy called out again, sitting down on a chair and unfolding his copy of the Daily Prophet, "Granger, we've yet to come up with a password for this place", he drawled, "and since you objected to my last two suggestions –", she looked up sharply at this, "- I expect you to come up with a suitable one yourself. I wish you could do it sooner as Pansy's been bugging me to let her visit here," he said in a long suffering tone.

Hermione sniffed. _Oh, so he was going to bring _Pansy 'the Pug-face' Parkinson_ to __their__ dorm, not if she could help it, she thought angrily._ "I'll let you know when I come up with it Malfoy," she said sweetly, glaring at the newspaper behind which his face was hidden. She marched to the bathroom and shut the door. _Stupid Pansy and her stupid fawning,_ she thought irately, taking out her anger on the soap and squishing it in her hands, _and he shamelessly seems to like it,_ she seethed, the soap now a shapeless glob.

Still feeling furious at everything, she emerged from the shower, dressed at top speed and exited the dorm without giving him a chance to enquire her about the password again.

She sat down moodily for breakfast – _again. _This seemed to have become a routine. _It's all Malfoy's fault,_ she thought furiously cutting up her bacon.

"In a bad mood, _again?_", Ron asked noticing her demeanor, "what did Malfoy do this time?"

"Why do you always thinks its Malfoy's fault? Cant I be pissed at someone else? Why is it that you assume that my life revolves around that pale haired git and that what he says effects me? 'coz _I couldn't care less about that prat!_" she ranted, rounding up on Ron.

Ron cowered and edged away from her, "I never said that your life revolves around him," he said in a small voice. "And he _is _a prat," he added hoping to placate her.

She then immediately felt guilty about venting her anger at Ron.

"I'm sorry Ron," she said quietly, feeling ashamed for her outburst.

"'S ok, 'Mione," he said and nodded that he understood.

She mentally berated herself, and forced herself to forget about the blond git and calm down. Though, he seemed determined to make that very hard for her.

For there he stood outside the Potion's classroom in the dungeons, holding court with his Slytherin pals. Pansy was up front with him in the group. She was smiling so widely at him, that one could count all her teeth, she seemed to touch his arm every time he said something. Hermione turned away from the display, fuming. She mentally imagined tentacles erupting from Pansy's face and smiled savagely to herself. Thankfully, the bell rang for the start of class, just as Pansy gave another of her shrill giggles and people's eardrums (in Hermione's opinion) were spared from further damage. The Potions' class went along as usual, with Hermione steadfastly ignoring the Slytherin side of the class.

Hermione spent all her free time in the library that day, and even returned to it after dinner, returning to the dorm only after closing time. She then snuck silently into her bed. The next few days too, she managed to spend as little time in the dorm as was possible, by getting up earlier and going to bed later than Malfoy.

The next day, she was lounging comfortably in her usual armchair, re-reading the old Potion's book in the dorm, knowing that Malfoy wouldn't return until later from his Quidditch practice.

Just then the door opened and Malfoy walked in, still clad in his Quidditch robes.

"Malfoy!", she exclaimed, "I-I thought you had practice today?"

Malfoy frowned at her surprise. "Got cancelled," he said abruptly. "One of our Beaters' broke his arm," he explained briefly.

"Oh," she said returning to her book.

"So Granger", he said still frowning at her, "I noticed that you've been quite busy this week?"

"Oh...um…yeah…busy with work..library," she said evasively, squirming in her chair.

"So", he said still staring at her, "did you come up with a password yet?"

_Dang! _she thought.

"um..no," she said in a small voice.

"Granger! I asked you to come up with a password not the bleeding _facts of life!_" he said in his trademark drawl, crossing his arms.

"Ok,ok..so how about..," she said impatiently , peering into her book –

"'Amortensia'?"

"The_ Love potion?!_" Malfoy asked raising his brows.

She nodded.

"_No way!_" Malfoy said shaking his head.

"Well that's the best I could come up with and if _you _don't like it then its not my problem!" she said feigning anger and hurried to her room, shutting it on Malfoy's confused expression.

"_Phew!_" she breathed, leaning against the door. Then remembered that tomorrow she had patrol duty with him and groaned. She needed a new strategy, she thought dully.

OoOoOoO

A/N : hope, you guyz liked it. I may make some changes to it later, though.

Oh, and I love Hermione screaming at Draco!

Review, review n review!


	9. Chapter 9

A/N : I guess, you guys must be wondering by now that how I came up with the horrendous title, well, the working title had been "Draco and Hermione" – I _know!_ _Very imaginative, thank you!_ And "Love Shmuv…" was a last moment thing and that just popped into my head when I posted this fic.

Anyhoo…I hope you liked the way the story is goin' so far.

Disclaimer : nope not me, bow to The Great JKR.

"_Phew!" she breathed, leaning against the door. Then remember that tomorrow she had patrol duty with him and groaned. She needed a new strategy, she thought dully._

Chapter Nine :

And the dreaded hour seemed to come fast enough and sadly she_ didn't_ have a strategy. This time Malfoy was, surprisingly, waiting for her in the dorm. Seeing no way to escape she joined him and together they headed for their patrol. They walked silently along corridors for a while, looking into random empty classrooms for errant students, Hermione nervously fidgeting with her curly hair. But Malfoy didn't seem inclined to say anything to her. Suddenly they heard a swooshing noise followed by a mad cackle.

They looked at each other.

"_Peeves!_" they mouthed together.

"_Again!_" Hermione said as Malfoy rolled his eyes.

They saw the poltergeist's shadow around the corner and looked around quickly for a place to hide. Just then, Hermione remembered and pulled on Malfoy's sleeve, "C'mon," she whispered hurriedly as he looked at her questioningly.

She ran dragging him behind, down a narrow passage to the right. They found a series of locked old unused classrooms. Hermione sped past all of them and reached the last one, which was open.

"Hurry!" she said pushing him inside, quickly following herself and closing the door.

"You know, that poltergeist is beginning to get on my nerves", he said looking irritated, straightening his robes, "first thing tomorrow, I'm going to complain to Dumbledore. That thing's had enough run of this castle!"

Hermione nodded distractedly and walked into the classroom, dodging tree branches as she went by. Looking around, Malfoy was surprised. He remembered it as the old classroom used by the centaur Firenze for his Divination classes. He stepped onto the springy grass, the trees seemed to sway in magical wind. He walked forwards until he was beneath the leafy canopy. Hermione seemed to have moved the canopy, 'coz the stars suddenly shone brightly down on him. He heard her sigh. She walked over to the middle and sat down on the ground, looking dreamily above.

"I forgot how beautiful it looked," she whispered to herself.

Malfoy looked around , then hesitantly sat down on the grass near her. Hermione looked in surprise at him sitting beside her. Malfoy was staring resolutely above.

"I thought you dropped out of Divination, so how come you know about this classroom?" he asked her still looking at the enchanted ceiling which was made to look like the night sky.

"_How_ do_ you_ know that?!" she asked slightly taken aback.

He looked at her staring at him wide eyed and smirked, "Granger, the entire school knows about your little tantrum in that old bat's class."

"Oh," she said coloring up a bit.

"So how do you know about this classroom?" he asked again.

"Harry told me about it, described how incredible it was, that I had to come and see for myself," she said looking up the stars again.

She could see, what looked like Venus, shining brightly above. They passed a few moments in comfortable silence. If a week before someone had told her that she would be sitting with _Malfoy,_ chatting and looking up at stars, she'd have laughed out loud at the poor sap. But here she was, doing it and surprisingly it didn't feel weird at all.

"Granger", he began again, "how did you feel, I mean, when you first found out that you could do magic?"

She turned to look at him; he was staring seriously at her. His sleet-gray eyes reflecting the star light so that they looked like molten silver. "Well", she said thinking, "I knew that something strange was going on with me when I could make things I needed just fly towards me on their own. The letter from Hogwarts confirmed what I had suspected. Honestly I felt excited, but also felt confused and scared. You know magic and witches have long since been vilified 'coz people fear what they don't know about and I felt I would be ostracized. My parents left the decision to come to Hogwarts to me, and they had always taught me to look beyond prejudices. And that's what I did," she said looking up at the constellations again. "I looked beyond the prejudice against magic by normal people – muggles - and so here I am," she said turning to look at him. "And finding out that the Wizarding world has the many prejudices too," she said smiling bitterly.

Malfoy was staring intently at her, he noted how soft and open her brown eyes were, how they seemed to be windows to her soul.

He laid back down, resting his head in the grass. "Do you know what constellation is it tonight?" he asked her.

Drawing up her knees and resting back her hands on the ground, she inclined her head to see the night sky clearly.

"um… sorry cant make out what it is," she said slowly.

"Doesn't Draco mean 'dragon'?" she asked after a while.

"Yeah, mother apparently named me after the 'dragon constellation'," he said grinning.

"_Really?_", she said looking at him with a smirk, "did you ever see it?"

"Nope", he said closing his eyes, "don't know if it even exists, or if my mother's just making it up to sound grand". A small smile played on his lips.

(A/N : actually, the 'dragon constellation'-Draco _does_ exist and has significance in several mythologies. Draco _apparently_, doesn't seem to know this or he is making a playful joke about his mother's vanity)

Hermione looked over at him lying peacefully in the grass and smiled.

They returned to the dorm well past the end of their patrol time relaxed, tension and stress for the first time absent between the pair.

The next day being a Sunday, they got up nice and _late_ – a first for Hermione. She got out of bed yawning widely.

"Good Morning," Malfoy said amiably, buried in his customary newspaper.

"Morning," she said yawning again. "I need to get some coffee," she muttered, stifling another yawn.

"Good!", Malfoy announced, putting his paper down, "I was going to breakfast myself."

"Malfoy, I haven't even dressed yet."

"Granger, loosen up a bit, wont you? Its Sunday no one cares if you're in your pyjamas," he drawled.

She stared severely at him. "I'm the _Head_ _Girl_!"

"So? Still no one would care," he said rolling his eyes. "_C'mon!_", he whined, dragging her out the door, "I'm starving."

"Malfoy, I'm capable of walking by my own", she snapped as she pulled her sleeve from his grip.

They reached the Great Hall and she suddenly stopped.

"Granger, what _now_?" he said impatiently.

"Malfoy, we cant – cant go in together," she hesitated.

"And why not?" he asked raising his eyebrow.

"Just think about what people will say, I mean, they'll be shocked," she said in a rush.

"Granger", he said breathing hard through his nose, "I couldn't care less about what people thought. But it seems _you _care so much, then fine!", with that he spun on his heel and marched into the hall on his own, leaving her stranded behind.

"_Damn!_" she thought furious with herself, just when things were going perfectly she had to go and ruin everything.

_Sigh_. She walked into the Great Hall and spotted Malfoy at the Slytherin table furiously buttering his toast and ignoring her as she walked past.

She sat down glumly at the Gryffindor table.

"_Hermione!_", Ron exclaimed loudly. "_There _you are and we were going to check the Hospital wing to see if you were sick or something," he was saying, as Harry smiled at her from behind him.

"Sorry Ron, I kind of had a long day yesterday and slept in late," she said massaging her temples, which were throbbing more after Ron had practically shouted in her ear. She poured herself some coffee and sipped it gratefully.

"So Hermione what're you going to do today? Harry and I have Quidditch practice," Ron said nodding at Harry.

"Yeah, I had to schedule extra practice sessions for our new Beaters," Harry explained.

"So we're going to be busy the whole day", Ron continued, "do you want to come and watch or go to the library?"

"Go to the library. I was hoping to do my Transfiguration essay today," she said taking another sip.

"Well, that's new", Ron said rolling his eyes, "'K then, we've gotta go, bye."

"Yeah, bye Hermione," Harry said waving as she smiled at them.

She glanced around at Malfoy who was alone at his table.

She went over with her coffee mug.

"Hey," she said coming to stand infront of his table.

He looked up and glared at her. "What do _you_ want?" he snapped.

"Well, I was wondering if you want to come to the library after - we could work together on that Transfiguration homework."

"You don't have to ask me, just 'coz your little friends are too busy to be with you!" he said acidly.

"Must you make everything so difficult?" she asked, irritated, closing her eyes.

In reply Malfoy just went back to his breakfast.

"_Fine!_" she thought furiously, if he was so adamant an behaving like a child. She hurried out of the hall, clutching her coffee mug, as he stared angrily after her.

OoOoOoO

A/N : Peeves is turning out to be quite the cupid, don't you think?!

Review guyz!


	10. Chapter 10

A/N : for those of you who are wondering why the story is so clichéd and filled with HP lexicon, let me tell you that it was deliberate - 'coz _hullo!_ this is _fan_ fiction right? … right….

Anyhoo…thanx for reading guyz – you rock my socks!

Disclaimer : c'mon you know drill…. Hey, do you think JKR should write another HP?

"_Fine!" she thought furiously, if he was so adamant an behaving like a child. She hurried out of the hall, clutching her coffee mug, as he stared angrily after her._

Chapter Ten :

So Hermione dressed, collected her roll of parchment and books and headed off to the library on her own.

She worked very slowly as she distractedly kept glancing up whenever someone entered the library. But it was in vain as there was no sign of the blond even until dinner time.

Partly angry with herself and partly at Malfoy's petulant behaviour, she ate her dinner in a hurry and headed back to the dorm. Malfoy was there lounging in his chair reading the book on Potions' that she had so often scanned through in her free time. He didn't look up at her.

She rolled her eyes, then freshened up. Malfoy rose and walked out by himself when time for their patrol began. Rolling her eyes again at him, she followed after him. There was a huffy silence between them as they roamed the deserted corridors.

Malfoy never once looked at her.

Finally having had enough of this, Hermione burst out, "Malfoy, for God's sake! I'm sorry, ok? Now would you _please _start acting like an adult again?"

Malfoy completely ignored this, and hastened forward out of her reach.

"Malfoy," she called out, hurrying forward to keep up with him. "I said I was – " she said grasping his arm.

He snapped. He spun her around and threw her to the wall, pinning her arms on either side.

"_Don't- touch- me,_" he spitted out, his nostrils flaring, glaring into her eyes. "You- filthy- _m_ – " he stopped.

"Say it", she said biting back furious tears, "just say it why don't you?"

He didn't answer.

"Coward," she whispered hoarsely.

His eyes widened and he gripped her more painfully, her eyes glistened with tears and he seemed to freeze looking into her eyes.

"Don't call me that," he said quietly. He leant his head forwards, as she still glared into his gray eyes. She closed her eyes as she felt his lips on hers, they were soft and warm and shivering a little. Her mind grew blank. She was surprised to find herself kissing him back. All the anger, frustration and something else, something new – _desire_, poured into one kiss. His hands dropped from her arms and now were framing her face, his cold fingers delicately feeling her features. Her hands had found his hair and were now entangled in it.

The kiss seemed to last only for a second, but also seemed to stretch for eternity, washing them in bliss. They were lost in each other, leaving the dreary world behind. But like everything else, this had to end too, and it did. His lifted his lips form hers, his eyes still closed he rested his head in the crook of her neck, breathing in the sweet smell of her hair as it tickled his face.

Hermione opened her eyes atlast, her lips felt cold at the loss of contact. She saw her hands in his hair and gently removed them. She was staring wide eyed in front of her. She could feel his breath on her neck, his heart beating wildly against hers.

She pushed him gently away. He opened his eyes, and gray eyes intently stared into brown ones. He raised his hand and cupped the side of her face. But she removed his hand and backed away slowly from him breathing hoarsely, then she turned and ran, clutching at her heart, which seemed about to burst. She ran and ran, along one empty corridor and the next, until gasping she reached the door to their dorm. She shut the door to her room and slumped along it to the floor, still clutching at her heart.

Her brain was yelling at her, though her heart seemed to drown out the noise.

But _oh my God!_ What had she done? She buried her face in her hands, she had kissed Malfoy – Draco and the worst part was that she never wanted the kiss to end!

She pictured Mal – Draco still standing in that dark corridor looking after her with his gray eyes, which seemed to have silver tinges around the edges.

She groaned.

Draco stood there, his hand still raised from where her face had been, staring into the darkness. He finally lowered his hand. _Bloody hell!_ What had he done? He thought, blinking. He had kissed her – Granger – _Hermione!_ He had just been swept up by the moment, he told himself, that's all. There was attraction, there was no denying that, but had he fallen for her? No! it was just teen hormones, yes, that's all, just hormones, he thought calming himself – although, the panic slowly rising within him refused to die down.

Hermione got up at the crack of dawn the next day, dressed quickly and headed to where she thought she might find some solace – to the Gryffindor Common room. She said the password and entered through the portrait hole. It was still dark in the room, though surprisingly the fire was still lit, and dozing before it in one of her old favourite armchairs, was Ginny. She had a book open on her lap and her head was lolling on the arm rest.

Hermione sat down quietly in a chair beside the redhead and stared, thinking, into the embers of the fire. After a while Ginny stirred, and the book fell down, she opened her eyes blearily.

"Hey Hermione," she yawned looking around the room. "You seem troubled."

"What? I'm not troubled," Hermione said looking at her.

"Hermione you're awake at this ungodly hour and staring into the fire," she said picking up her fallen book and closing it shut. "I say, you are troubled," she repeated.

"Its nothing. I'm not troubled," she said again giving her a smile. "You go back to sleep."

Ginny frowned at her. "If you don't want talk about it now, I'd understand, but you'll tell me later anyway," she said getting up from the armchair and stretching. "um..Hermione, did you start the fire again?"

"No."

"Oh, 'coz it was almost gone out when I was falling asleep," she said frowning to herself. "Oh well, wait here, and I'll come down to breakfast with you. Then we can talk about what's _not_ bothering you," she said disappearing up the stairs.

Hermione returned to her staring into the fire, when she was interrupted again by another redhead.

"Hermione!" he said surprised.

"Good Morning Ron", she said looking a bit guiltily at him, "how come you're up so early?"

"It's 'coz of Harry!" he exclaimed indignantly. "He kept going in and out of the room at around two in the morning! And now he's asleep and I'm not!"

"Oh," she said, realizing who had relit the fire for Ginny.

"So, what's wrong with you? And don't tell me Malfoy had nothing to do with it," he said looking closely at her. "What did he do this time?"

"What! Nothing!" she squeaked. "Malfoy didn't do anything – I certainly didn't do anything – _Nothing_ happened! We didn't do anything!" she ranted, pulling her hair nervously.

"Hermione, you're blabbering," Ron said frowning at her.

Just then thankfully for Hermione, "I'm here!" Ginny announced, appearing at the foot of the stairs, she went about collecting her books and putting them into her bag.

"Hermione, er, I actually wanted to do ask you something," he said quietly so Ginny wouldn't hear.

Hermione raised her eyebrows questioningly.

"er… may be later," he said glancing at Ginny as she came towards them.

Hermione nodded and stepped out the portrait hole after Ginny. She ate her breakfast listening to Ginny talk animatedly about Fred and George's latest product. She listened with difficulty as her mind regularly wandered off to dark cozy corridors.

She sighed into her goblet.

The Hall gradually filled around them. She glanced up from her goblet and watched _him_ enter the Hall. His eyes seemed to lock unto hers, all the noise around them seemed to filter out. It was just the two of them, their hearts beating a mile a second –

"er Hermione? Why are you staring at Malfoy?" Ginny asked beside her.

She tore her gaze away from him and put on an incredulous look, "I'm not _staring _at _Malfoy!_" she laughed nervously.

Ginny seemed satisfied and returned to her pancakes.

Hermione glanced around discreetly and saw him- Malfoy- Draco, watching her intently. She turned back, but still could feel the funny prickle on the back of her neck.

Soon she was in Potions, working between Harry and Ron. Malfoy had taken the adjacent bench, along with Crabbe and Goyle. Her nape still prickled as she nervously added ingredients to her potion. Halfway through the class, Ron pulled Hermione aside away from Harry. Hermione who could feel Malfoy lurking just behind her, felt highly discomfited with the situation. Her hand twitched nervously as Ron leaned in to whisper to her. In the background Draco's eyes glinted dangerously.

"Hermione, I wanted to ask you something," Ron was saying.

She nodded for him to continue – fast.

"Will you – will you go out with me this Saturday – Hogsmeade?", he said nervously, his ears turning red.

Hermione just stood there, stupefied. _Perfect timing, you Twit!_

"Ron", she began as he stared at her hopefully, "I don't know. I-"

"Just- just think about it and then tell me your reply, ok?" he said looking earnestly at her.

She nodded slowly, and moved back to her cauldron, not noticing the look on the face of the seething blond who had been behind her.

OoOoOoO

A/N : so here it is! The first kiss! And I felt totally cheesy writing this. Oh well…

you must have noticed they're no pages n pages of psychoanalytical babble, 'coz that's not my style- instead I'm trying to put it across subtly through dialogue….hope you don't mind.

Anyhoo…review folks

PS : I cant _believe _the number of hits this got, just for the last 12 hrs! I'm flyin' high!


	11. Chapter 11

A/N : hmmm..so things got _interesting _after the last chap, huh?

Again, thnx for reading, and hope you weren't totally revolted by my intimacy-writing skills (or their lack of!)

Anyhoo enjoy this chappie!

Disclaimer : _earth to T…earth to T : _**no**, you don't own HP – it belongs to J K R

_T : _**what**!**no**! arrrggh!

_She nodded slowly, and moved back to her cauldron, not noticing the look on the face of the seething blond who had been behind her._

Chapter Eleven :

Hermione spent the rest of the day avoiding Draco.

But he seemed to pop up everywhere she went. It almost seemed like he was following her. But she successfully avoided him, until that is, she had to return to the dorm after Madam Pince shooed her away after closing time. She sighed, and hoped that he had gone to bed. She opened the door to the dorm silently and stepped inside. It was dark and seemed very quiet.

Releasing the breath she was holding at last, she thought that Malfoy may have indeed retired. She tiptoed across the hall towards her room.

"So", a voice came out from the shadows, "here you are atlast."

She gulped. She could see his outline in a chair in the dark.

He lit his wand. He was sitting in her armchair, his fingers resting under his chin.

"You've been avoiding me, Granger," he drawled coldly.

"Um…," she looked shiftily down at her feet.

He stood up and came to stand in front of her.

"So what did you say?" he asked.

"What? What are you talking about?" she looked up at him confused.

"To Weasley! What did you say to him? Did you say 'yes'? he asked impatiently.

She looked startled at him.

"Malfoy-" she began.

"_You cant go out with him!_" he said loudly, his eyes flashing.

"Malfoy! I-" she tried again.

"You _cant!_ I wont allow it!" he fumed.

Hermione stood frozen – shocked.

"_You wont allow it?_" she repeated frowning. "Let me make this clear to you, _Malfoy_ – who I go out with is none of _your _business," she said crossing her arms across her chest.

Malfoy glared at her. He was furious, his lips drawn tight, he reached out and gripped her elbow tightly, shaking her with every word.

"You listen to me", he snarled dangerously, "you- will- not- go- out- with- him!"

"You know what?" she spat as she pulled her bruised arm from his grip. "I think I _will_ go out with Ron, now. I wasn't so sure before, but I think I am now! Thanks!" she snapped sarcastically and with that disappeared into her room, slamming the door. Leaving Malfoy behind, who was now so furious and frustrated that he could have pulled his hair out from his head, but instead he fell heavily back into the armchair and slammed his fist on the armrest.

Hermione woke up the next morning still feeling angry and flustered. Needless to say the morning was spent in huffy silence, trying their best to avoid eye contact and rushing out to breakfast.

"So…," Ron dallied, watching her make random patterns in her porridge moodily. "In a bad mood _again?_ So what happened?" he asked (hoping she wouldn't bite his head off).

"Yes, _again,_" she said grimly looking up at him. "What do you think happened?" she snapped, her voice steadily growing louder.

"_Malfoy _happened! Its Malfoy's fault! Its _always _his fault! There, now you don't have to ask me again and again in the future!"

"Okaay…," he said slowly, returning to his own breakfast.

Harry had looked up, seen the scene before him, thought the better of it and had gone back to reading the paper.

Hermione just sat there, fuming, her porridge now cold.

Malfoy seemed to be in an identical mood, if not worse, 'coz he couldn't decide if he was more pissed at her or himself. He thought that maybe – just _maybe _he had over reacted a _tad_. But that didn't warrant the way she had reacted, he thought furiously. Ok, so maybe it did, he thought, trying to block out Pansy's continuous rambling. What had he expected her to do? Certainly not snub him like that! No one _ever _dares to snub him! _She's not Pansy,_ a stern voice in his head called out. Thank Heavens for that, he thought dully, watching Pansy go on and on about some new Wizarding robes shop in Hogsmeade.

"…so what do you think Draco?", she was asking in her saccharine sweet tone, "want to go there with me on Saturday?"

He gave her a withering look. "_ No _Pansy. I do _not_ want to go _any_where with _you – _ever," he drawled coldly looking at her.

Pansy's smile slipped, but she hitched it up after only a moment.

"OK," she said brightly. "What about that sport's store - for your Quidditch thingies," she added waving her arm excitedly in air.

Draco groaned out aloud, and closed his eyes, begging Heavens above for patience. But, Pansy was undeterred.

"- or Madam Puddifoots'! We've _never _been there. Everyone I know has been there atleast once," she was whining.

Draco finally snapped.

"Pansy", he said loudly, rubbing his temples, "will- you- just-_SHUT- UP- _for- a- moment!"

The Hall instantly became quiet; people were craning their necks to look over at the Slytherin table. Pansy was looking wide eyed at him, her mouth hanging open stupidly, while he huffed and went back to his cereal.

Hermione had turned to look over at him too.

"Trouble in Paradise," Ron snickered, as she continued to glare at Draco. She turned her glare at Ron.

"_What?_" Ron asked shrugging.

Malfoy's mood seemed to worsen as the day passed, handing out detentions to anyone foolish enough to step onto his path. He nearly drove a First year to hysterical tears, before McGonagall appeared and reprimanded him – _severely._ 'The old bat,' he thought bitterly, clutching his ears, which were still ringing.

And sadly, for everyone around him, he didn't seem to brighten up the next day either.

"Oh, look who we have here," Hermione, Harry and Ron heard the familiar drawl walking down the hallway from the Great Hall after dinner. They turned around looking grim.

"Malfoy," Harry spat, his temper rising instantly.

"Why! Its Potty, Weasel and the big haired Bookworm," he continued smirking maliciously.

"Ron, don't-", Hermione said as Ron stepped forward furiously, "-he's not worth it."

"Yes Weasley, listen to your _girlfriend, _if you know what's good for you," he said twirling his wand in his hands. "Although I must say, I never thought you'd prefer a walking library."

Hermione's eyes flashed dangerously.

"Malfoy", Ron ground out, as Harry retrieved his wand from his robes, "leave her out of this, if you know what's good for _you!_"

"And who are you, her Knight in tattered armour?" he said, still playing with his wand and looking amused.

"Malfoy, back off," Harry said seriously, clutching at Ron's robes, preventing him from punching Malfoy's face.

Smirking widely at the trio for the last time, Malfoy sunk away into the shadows.

"Bloody git," Ron bit out angrily.

Hermione just rubbed her temples, feeling a headache coming on, which quickly graduated to a throbbing migraine in the next two days, Malfoy's aggravating behaviour providing a wonderful catalyst.

Indeed, Malfoy seemed to have reached new heights of er… 'Malfoyness' – terrorizing everyone within reach. Even Snape seemed bothered by the antics of his favourite student.

"Mr.Malfoy, however amusing this may be to you, I'm afraid I may have to give you a detention next time you blow up Longbottom's cauldron, as its starting to get on my nerves," Snape called out silkily, cleaning up the mess the third time.

McGonagall even threatened to suspend him from his post as Head Boy, as he listened looking bored.

As a result anyone who had any sense in them, just avoided him like the plague. Unfortunately, for him, though Pansy seemed immune to his bad behaviour, and this drove him more mad – if that was possible. She actually seemed to like the way people feared him now. She strutted out with a vapid smile behind him, as he forced himself to not notice her presence.

In the end Hermione had had enough of everything, and on Friday night she stormed over to the dorm and rounded on him.

"Malfoy, what is your problem?", she gritted out, "why do _you_ care so much about who I go out with?"

"I do not!" Malfoy spat back. "In fact I think its great! I cant wait to see the look on your face when Weasley finally dumps you for that Lavender girl again!"

He had touched a nerve and she looked hurt and scandalised.

This time he had really screwed things up, and he knew it watching her storm out the door.

_Shit!_

Hermione ran, breathing hard. She couldn't believe he had said that to her – who was she kidding? He was _Malfoy_! Ofcourse he would use something like that to hurt her. She couldn't believe that a few days before they had actually gotten along – however briefly – and even _kissed._ She wiped the tears away furiously. She burst into the Common room looking around determinedly.

"Hermione!" Ginny called out in surprise. "Are you alright?" she asked slowly looking at her face.

"Yes – yes", Hermione said hastily, "where's Ron? I have to talk to him."

"Quidditch practice. I just returned, but Ron stayed on with Harry for some extra practice," Ginny said shrugging.

"Oh," Hermione said looking around, not knowing what to do next.

"Hermione, are you sure you're alright?" Ginny asked again quietly, leading her to sit in of the chairs. "You know you can always tell me anything," she said placing a placating hand on Hermione's arm.

Hermione gave her a shaky smile.

"Oh, its nothing. I just wanted to tell Ron that I'll go to Hogsmeade with him tomorrow. Will you tell him that for me Ginny?"

"Yeah, sure," she said frowning slightly at her.

Hermione fidgeted around, not knowing what else to say and avoided the other girl's curious gaze.

"Hermione, I'm sorry I didn't tell you this earlier", Ginny began after a while looking flushed, "but Harry asked me today to go with him to Hogsmeade". She blushed furiously looking into her lap.

Hermione's mood lifted up instantly, feeling happy for her friends. She hugged the redhead, "that's so great!"

"So you going with Ron, huh?" Ginny asked after awhile looking seriously at her. "I didn't think you would – after what happened last year."

"Yeah, well," Hermione shrugged. "I need to go now, just tell Ron, ok?" she headed out the portrait hole as Ginny nodded and called out Good Night.

OoOoOoO

A/N : I had real fun writing this chapter! Hope you lot liked it!

I am overwhelmed seeing your reviews and the number of hits this is getting. Its more than I _ever_ imagined! Thnx a ton!

Review folks! 'coz they make my day!


	12. Chapter 12

A/N : hey! Here's the new chap and me thinks I deserve loads of reviews for my prompt updating, don't you think? Anyhoo..i've tried to reply to everyone of the reviews, and am really sorry if I left someone out. Again thnx for reading guyz!

Disclaimer : One day,

_jkr was travelling in a train_

_looking at all the mundane,_

_when lo behold harry blossomed in her brain_

_and pottermania made the world go insane,_

_but we're too joyful to complain_

_and people resisted it in vain._

_i would love to nab harry,draco etal and lay a claim,_

_that'd be outrageous and i'm not prone to such disdain._

_da- dum da da da ,dum dum._

_xxxx_

"_Yeah, well," Hermione shrugged. "I need to go now, just tell Ron, ok?" she headed out the portrait hole as Ginny nodded and called out Good Night._

_­_Chapter Twelve :

**Saturday : Hogwarts : Morning**

They almost snarled at each other, heading out of their dorm. Animosity reaching a new high between them.

And then, there they were, standing in line for Filch's inspection, to go to Hogsmeade - for a _date._ No, not with each other. Their respective partners stood ignored beside them, as they were busy glaring at each other. But they had atleast one thing in common between them – they were on a date just to spite each other. Well, they say Love works in mysterious ways.

**Saturday : Hogsmeade : The Three Broomsticks **

Hermione tapped the table restlessly with her fingers. Ron had gone to get their drinks. The pub was crowded more than usual with Hogwarts students, sitting in large groups all over the room, it was noisy and rowdy. Hermione was sitting at a small table at the back, which was somewhat less crowded and quiet. She looked around her, nobody was paying much attention to her – _good_, she thought. She didn't spot Harry and Ginny anywhere around. Ofcourse, she thought dully, Harry wouldn't be so thick headed as to bring his date to a noisy _pub_. She imagined them sitting somewhere cosy and maybe a bit less crowded. She sighed. Just then, the redhead re-emerged, carrying their drinks carefully through the crowd.

"Thanks," she said taking up her drink.

Ron sat down, watching her take a sip. "So,um what do you want to do next?" he asked sipping his drink and sounding a bit nervous.

She shrugged, swirling the glass in her hands.

"If you want we could stay here, or- or go to some shop or something," he added hastily, and took a large sip, his face felt hot.

"I don't feel much like shopping today. Lets just stay here," she said taking another sip.

"Ok, that's – that's … OK," he said, then fell silent staring at the table cloth. Hermione didn't feel like breaking the uncomfortable silence, what could she talk about anyway. She went back to drumming her fingers on the table. Neither of them noticed a pair of eyes staring at them, two tables away from their own. The 'snoopers' were hidden partly from view by a large pot plant.

"Look Draco! Those pathetic losers finally found each other! How _nauseating_!" Pansy was saying and gave one of her shrill giggles.

Draco wrinkled his nose at the sound.

"Shut up, Pansy!" he spat a bit loudly.

A couple of tables away, Hermione's eyes widened. She thought she heard that irritating giggle, but then her doubts were confirmed when she heard that familiar drawl. She was enraged, was he now _spying _on her?

She got up abruptly, Ron looking up in surprise at her.

"C'mon Ron, lets go outside. I have to buy something," she added in a rush.

"But I thought you said you wanted to stay here," he said putting down his drink.

"Well, now I have to shop, so c'mon," she said dragging him out with his arm and didn't notice him blushing as red as his hair.

Draco narrowed his eyes, as the two headed out of the pub.

"C'mon Pansy – shopping!" he said standing, still staring at the just closed doors.

Pansy's eyes shone and she hurried to follow him outside.

Outside the The Three Broomsticks, Draco was looking to the right and left, he spotted a red head bobbing up down the crowded street and hastened to follow, Pansy running along after him. He saw them disappear into a clothing store and paused.

"Wait up, Draco!" Pansy said breathlessly arriving and clutching at a stitch in her side.

"Oh, wow!" she exclaimed looking excitedly at the shop before them. "The new store! New robes for me! I'll pick out something for you too, Draco!" she squealed, hopping onto the threshold. Draco groaned and headed inside.

Pansy promptly dragged him to the party robes' section, while he scanned the area for his quarry. Well, they certainly didn't seem to be in this part of the store, he groaned again.

Pansy busied herself by pulling out outfit after outfit. She was holding up silver coloured, sequined robes and preening, waiting for his opinion. He rolled his eyes at the gaudy thing.

"Pansy I need some air," he announced and turned on his heel on her slightly put out expression, and walked over to another part of the store. This one was filled with baby clothes and accessories. Wrong section. He headed up the stairs to the first floor of the shop.

Hermione was crouching behind a frilly pink crib, watching him climb the stairs. She breathed a sigh of relief.

"er… Hermione? What are you doing?" Ron was looking at her strangely.

"um.. thought it was cute.." she said patting the crib, and stood up feeling absolutely ridiculous.

"Okaay.." Ron said slowly. " And why are we in the Baby section again?" he asked looking around at more cribs and bassinets, the walls lined with squishy soft toys.

"er..", Hermione thought fast, "I wanted to buy something for – for Tonks and Remus."

"Oh, right – I hadn't thought about that", Ron said looking around again. "So what are you going to buy?" he asked inspecting a stuffed unicorn, poking it with his finger.

"I don't know…may be a crib? We could have it delivered it to them," she said slowly, thinking.

"Yeah… but how do you know which colour to pick?" he was now testing a miniature broomstick, it hovered around his ankles, rising up occasionally till his knees.

"That can be taken care of, Sir", a sales witch had Apparated next to them, "just order it now, list the parents' names and we'll have it delivered accordingly!"

"That'd be great!" Hermione said looking at her. "It can be a gift from all of us," she said to Ron.

"Yeah that'd be cool."

"Very well Ma'am", the sales witch said smiling, "If you will kindly step up to the counter, I'll place an order for you."

Hermione went along with her, as Ron hung back, his interest piqued on seeing a miniature Quidditch play set, complete with a replica of the Quidditch pitch, two teams of miniature players and even a tiny snitch.

"There, all done," Hermione announced returning, she saw him immersed in reading the instructions on the box.

"Shopping for the future? I don't think the world's prepared for another red haired nuisance."

_Why?_ Hermione thought desperately, looking Heavenwards,_ why me?_

"Malfoy!" Ron snarled.

"Weaselby," Malfoy said calmly. "Don't you think it's a bit too early to shop for little Weaselbies and only on your first date?" he was smirking.

"Sod off, Malfoy!"

"Ooh, great comeback, I cant wait to see that _wonderful_ wit of yours passed onto the next generation, that'd be a hoot!" Malfoy said sarcastically.

"Ron, c'mon, lets just go," Hermione said and managed to physically drag the irate redhead out of the store, away from the sneering blond.

Hermione spent the next few hours accompanying Ron, silently, walking down Hogsmeade streets, window shopping. It would have been quite pleasant, if Ron hadn't kept muttering angrily to himself and seemed to completely ignore her.

"Perfect", she thought dully, "a perfect end to a perfect day."

**Saturday : Hogwarts : Dinner**

"Hermione!"

"Hi Harry, so how was your date?" Hermione asked turning to look at him.

"Surprisingly- good!" he sounded happy and Hermione couldn't help but smile.

"So how did it go with you and Ron?"

"You know, I really don't want to talk about it right now," Hermione said quietly glancing over at Ron, whose mood hadn't improved much.

"Oh," Harry said looking at him and nodded.

"So where did you go? We didn't find you in any of the stores, not to Madam Puddifoots' again, I hope?" she asked him teasingly.

"_No…._just this quiet place a little out of the village…" he was blushing and fidgeted in his seat.

"How _romantic!_" Hermione sighed, and burst out laughing seeing him so uncomfortable.

She felt her mood marginally uplifted, but that quickly disappeared as she headed to the dorm, her anger rising gradually. She stopped as she reached the dorm door. She didn't want another confrontation. She took a deep breath and turned back around. All she needed now was some time to get away from everything – stress, anger and Maloy – _mainly _Malfoy.

Her feet carried her of their own accord. And soon she was standing infront of the classroom door. She stepped inside and breathed in the cool breeze. She pulled aside leafy branches, smiling to herself, feeling relaxed already. Then she stopped dead in her tracks.

"_You!_" she screeched at the blond figure lying on the ground. "What are _you_ doing here?" she spat accusingly.

"Granger", he said from the ground not looking up at her, "you don't own this place and I can be where ever I want."

She just stared at him, breathing hoarsely.

"Ok, I give up!" she said atlast, bursting into tears. "You win! I'm tired – tired of fighting with you everyday. So you know, that's it, _I give up!"_

Draco sat up looking shocked at the girl standing before him. Hermione buried her face in her hands. He got up and moved forward uncertainly. He paused before her and looked around desperately, then gritted his teeth and patted her on the head – what he assumed would be soothingly.

She sobbed even harder and he withdrew his hand in alarm. He stood there, uncertain to what to do next.

"er..Granger," he tried as she gave a shuddering sob.

"Hermione?" he said slowly.

He froze as she suddenly flung her arms around him and sobbed heartily into his robes. Recovering after what seemed like hours, he tried patting her again.

"I thought Ron would never like me", she was saying shakily into his shoulder, "after he spent the whole of last year snogging Lavender, I was – I was crushed", her sobs renewed. Draco remembered her Boggart and understood.

"But – but now, he wants to be with me, and – and I –" she paused. Draco slowly lifted her chin up, she stared at him with her tear stained face. "- and I don't want- to – to be with him, anymore. And I just feel so terrible!" she buried her face once again into his robes and cried. Draco rubbed her back comfortingly.

"And _you!_", she called out suddenly, her voice sounded muffled, "you keep acting like a jerk and make it more difficult for me! Why? _Why_ do you always – ", she was sobbing again.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly as she hiccoughed. "I'm sorry for being a jerk".

She sniffed.

"You called me a 'big haired Bookworm'," she said in a small shaky voice.

"Well you _are,"_ he protested, she looked up finally from his robes and seemed to glare at him with watery eyes.

"Ok, ok", he said rolling his eyes, "I'm sorry for that too!"

"And a 'walking library'!"

"Alright! I'm _sorry_ for everything that I ever said to you! I was just being a jealous bastard!"

"You were jealous?" Hermione asked frowning.

"Yes", he said exasperated, "wasn't I being obvious enough?"

Hermione fixed him with a glare.

"You're such a prat, you know that?"

"Granger, that's a carefully cultivated personality trait. It has been passed onto generations of Malfoys," he said with a straight face.

Hermione gave him a big watery smile and rested her head on his shoulder again, snuggling closer to him.

"Granger," he said after a while. "You're not going to date Weasley again, are you?" he sounded nervous.

"No."

"Ever?"

She paused to think for a moment. " No, I don't like him that way anymore – but we'll always be friends," she said slowly.

Hermione closed her eyes and sighed, the breeze blew a few tendrils of her hair across her face. She could feel the gentle rhythm of their hearts. She then opened her eyes smirking -

"And you called Harry a –"

"Granger, don't push it!"

There was silence once again. The stars were blinking down at them and Malfoy – Draco was smiling like he had never smiled before in his life.

**Sunday : Outside the Great Hall : After Dinner **

"Malfoy! What are you doing?" Hermione gasped after having been pulled suddenly into a dark hallway on her way to the library. "The patrol doesn't start until an hour!"

"Who said anything about patrolling?" he breathed.

**Monday : Great Hall : Breakfast **

"Good Morning," Hermione sang out.

"Hermione!", Harry looked up at her surprised, "_You_ look cheerful today."

"When have I never been?" she asked giving him a big smile, and hummed while buttering her toast.

**Monday : Dungeons : Double Potions**

"Mr.Malfoy, would you kindly concentrate on you potion? It seems to be leaking from your cauldron!" Snape hissed after accidentally stepping into a pool of Freezing Potion, and needless to say his foot was frozen to the spot. The class watched, barely controlling their mirth, as Snape had to thaw his foot out.

"_So _sorry, Professor," Draco drawled.

Hermione fought to keep her face straight, even as Harry and Ron sniggered behind their hands.

**Monday : Great Hall : Dinner**

"So, Hermione can we talk- later?" Ron was asking.

"Sorry, Ron", Hermione said, as Draco passed by behind her, "I have to work on that Potions' homework, I'm going to the dorm after dinner."

**Monday : The Dorm : After Dinner**

"Draco! What're you doing?"

"What do you _think _I'm doing?"

"I've to _work – _on Snape's essay!"

"What? _Really?_ I thought you were just saying that to get rid of Weasley."

"Well, I _have _to, it's a four foot essay! No thanks to you!"

"Hey, I resent that. Its not my fault if Snape doesn't watch where he's walking!"

"Hmmph! Don't _you _have to work on it too?"

"Granger, its due the _next Monday!_"

"_Exactly!_ No time for dilly-dallying! And you better get started on it too."

_groan. _"Hermione we can do it on Sunday!"

_glare._ "Malfoy – _Now_!"

_graon. sigh. mutter, mutter. _" – starting – like – Pansy – better – "

_narrowed eyes. glare. _"What? What were you saying?"

_gulp. nervous chuckle._ "um, nothing?"

OoOoOoO

A/N : hmm, so what do you think of this chap?

Review and lemme know!

PS: I wanted to share something with you guyz- the funniest thing in the story for me was when Hermione accidentally sees Draco – ahem, in his boxers , I always imagine him in that scene with toothbrush hanging out and toothpaste foam around his mouth and I find it _hilarious _that Hermione would find that 'attractive'! well, anyhoo, that was my secret joke ..er..that's it.


	13. Chapter 13

A/N : Hey! I'm back!

Disclaimer : For the _gazillion_th time (plus one to that) – nope don't own HP, unless JKR in a very, _very _benevolent mood donates Harry and others to poor me…

Chapter Thirteen :

For the next few days Hermione felt like she was leading a really bizarre double life : in the time she spent alone with Draco she felt like she was floating on large fluffy clouds; and when in public she was forced to treat him with the animosity that others expected of her. She felt curiously alone, especially in midst of her friends, even though surrounded by their continuous babble, she felt like she was missing something – something very significant in her life. This was strange because she and Draco had only been together for just a few days. She knew she liked him– a lot actually- and knew that Draco felt the same way about her, judging by the, er, _passion_ with which he, erm, did _things_ with her that made her feel all tingly all over. Hermione blushed furiously every time she reminisced about the hours she spent with Draco, comfortably closeted in their dorm.

But the _other_ 'L' word never came up between them. Draco never mentioned it, and she wasn't really sure if she was ready to view this _thing _(the word _relationship_ seemed so foreign to her) between them in that entirely new context. This left her feeling more confused. If they just _liked _each other and obviously cared for each other, then what next? Where would that lead them to? Would they ever have a proper relationship where they didn't need to hide their feelings among friends? But would a relationship between them ever last, seeing that they hardly knew about each other?

Hermione looked up from the Scurdling root that she was slicing on the work table and directed her gaze to the front of the classroom, where a blond was bent double adjusting the flames beneath a copper cauldron. After all, what did she know about him? She didn't know any of his secrets, let alone his stand on the war that was lurking on the horizon. Would he choose to ally with the opposite side? Would she, in the future, have to fight him? or would he choose her – choose to fight _with _her; would he choose to go against his own father and his allegiance?

These troubling thoughts made her frown. So was it really wise to be involved with him? Her heart hammered against her chest and the hand that held the knife shook slightly, as he stood up to peer into his cauldron. Just then, somehow sensing her eyes on him, the blond turned around. Glancing around surreptitiously, he gave her a small cheeky grin. Hermione blushed and he turned back around smirking to himself. All thoughts and rational reasoning halted in Hermione's brain; all of that didn't seem important compared to the feeling she got, like her heart had suddenly expanded to twice its size, knowing that that smile was directed at her – not a glare nor a look of loathing, but a genuine, open smile that seemed to transform his whole face and make him look almost angelic – she doubted that anyone else had been lucky enough to be on its receiving end apart from herself. She felt giddy every time he did that, and he knew it, and so he sometimes did it to just see how red she'd get.

"Prat," she muttered to herself, though she couldn't help smiling a little.

See, the trouble was, that whenever Hermione tried to talk to Draco about all the things that were bothering her, she always got distracted by his mere presence and all thought flew out of her mind. Every time she resolved to bring it up the next time, she still lost her nerve in the last minute. After all, things were good the way they were now, weren't they? What if everything changed once she brought it out into the open? What if Draco became furious and everything went back to how it was in the past? Would she be able to deal with it?

On the whole Hermione felt her life had become more complicated than she would have liked. And keeping up the facade in front of her friends was proving to be really tiring; Draco still passed snarky comments on her, Harry and Ron in public, though she forced him to refrain from using anything really derogatory against Harry and Ron (to which he had reluctantly agreed to after Hermione had threatened to put a stop to _certain perks_)_._ Hermione on her part, forced to keep a straight face as Draco's insults usually contained some sort of innuendo and it was all she could do to stop herself from bursting into hysterical giggles as it completely went unnoticed by her friends; of course, Ron wouldn't know what innuendo was even if it came and bit his arse!

And speaking of Ron, Hermione had, until now, managed to thwart all his attempts at trying to discuss about their "date"; she had always made sure to pull Harry into any conversation they were having and found excuses to depart at high speed whenever she found herself alone with Ron. But it was becoming more and more difficult; how long could she avoid the matter? She didn't know what to tell Ron; actually she did, but that didn't make the task any easier, after all she couldn't just tell him : "Hi Ronald, I can't go out with you 'coz see, I'm involved with another guy! Oh, you know _him_ – he's the one who made our lives difficult for the past six years, and who you lovingly call 'that albino ferret'! And now, I'm snogging the life outta him at every opportunity I get! Funny how things turned out, ha? Well, gotta run! Have a happy life, Ron!"

Hermione shuddered at his possible reaction to that. But she knew she _had _to tell him sometime, she thought looking at him beside her languidly stirring his frothing potion, _at least_ that she wasn't interested in him that way anymore. This caused her more anguish because she didn't want to be the one to break his heart.

So between her doubts about Draco, sifting through her own confused feelings, keeping up the pretence of hating her new boyfriend (_?!_) for the benefit of her friends and her apprehension about the confrontation with Ron – _and _Harry, once he found out, in short _could life get anymore harried?!_

Hermione took a long shuddering breath and accidentally inhaled the putrid fumes emanating from Ron's cauldron; she retched a little and moved away from his side of the table. Right on cue, Snape glided towards them and grimaced as he took one whiff of the vapours.

"At this rate Weasley, you'd have completely killed our sense of smell by the month's end," he said and took out his wand; Ron shrank back in alarm, thinking he was about to hex him. Snape smirked and directed his wand at the cauldron beside him, "I think we'll need to get rid of this rubbish of a potion," it vanished, and so did thankfully the revolting smell.

"And you can rejoice Mr. Weasley", he said silkily, heading back to the front of the class, "you are the first one in this class to get a 'T' this year - oh, what a happy occasion."

Ron went beet red and glared into his now empty cauldron.

"Oh, and I also want you to write down the _correct_ procedure to prepare this potion", Snape called out from his desk, "about five times- or at least until it gets past your thick impertuble skull."

Ron looked up and opened his mouth angrily. Just then he felt a hand on his arm and turned to see Hermione give a little shake of her head. He closed his mouth and went back to glaring at his cauldron.

"Cheer up, Ron", Harry said as the bell rang for the end of the class, "you know that Snape's a git. He was just sour that he couldn't find anything wrong with my potion and so, the grease ball took it out on you."

Ron just packed his bag morosely.

Hermione gave him a sympathetic pat on the arm, he gave her a small smile in return.

They were heading out of the doors, when Hermione felt someone tap on her shoulder. She looked around, her brows raised, and her eyes widened to find that it was Draco.

"Granger, can I have a word?"

"erm, what is it Malfoy?" Hermione asked nervously glancing at Ron; he was on a rather short fuse at the moment, and had narrowed his eyes at Draco.

"Just some Heads' stuff," he said, looking only at her and ignoring the other two.

"Can't it wait Malfoy? I can't be late for Transfiguration," she said hoping that he'd catch on that it wasn't a good time.

"Granger, it'd take only five minutes of your precious time," he said in his trademark drawl.

"Just shove it Malfoy! She doesn't want to talk to gits like you," Ron said waspishly.

"Weasley, I suggest you use your time in improving your _trollish _grades, rather than in poking your nose in matters of people above you," Draco said coldly; his eyes hardened like chunks of ice – always a dangerous sign.

"And if you don't watch your mouth the next time, I'll have to give you det-"

"Malfoy, ok I'll talk to you," Hermione said in a rush, noticing the murderous gleam in Ron's eyes. "Harry and Ron, you go ahead. I'm sure this'll take only a few minutes."

Both of them hesitated, and Ron opened his mouth to argue.

"No really", she interrupted him, "just go – I'm fine."

Harry nodded, gave a warning look to Draco and dragged an unwilling Ron away to their next class.

Hermione watched them go anxiously then turned around to face Draco; he looked annoyed for some reason.

"What did you want to talk to me about?"

He didn't reply, and Hermione was about to ask him again when he suddenly pushed her against the now empty corridor wall. She gasped as she came in contact with the cold wall behind her and her eyes widened in surprise as he kissed her rather roughly. Her mind registered alarm, even as she found herself to be slipping into blissful oblivion; the kiss seemed passionate – very passionate- but also a little - _desperate_. And too soon, it seemed, it was over and he was looking at her with an almost crazed look in his eyes. It scared her a little, even as she struggled to get her breath under control, her mind still whirring from the kiss.

"What – what was that all about?" she gasped. His eyes seemed more normal now, and he raised his head to softly kiss her temple.

"What? Can't I kiss my girlfriend whenever I want to?" he asked burying his nose in her hair.

"Oh," she said blankly; she seemed to lose her breath again when he said the word 'girlfriend' – the first time he had ever said it. "Is that – is that why you asked me to – to," she stuttered, struggling to control overwhelming emotions of happiness and shock.

Draco sniggered, and she felt sure that he was smirking even though she couldn't see him. She shook her head a little trying to clear it as a smile tugged at her lips, " you know, you can't make me late for classes just because you felt like erm, kissing me," she chided, in what she hoped would be an appropriately stern voice, though it didn't seemed to have worked as Draco chuckled softly.

"No really, you can't!", she said looking up with a frown and forcing him to look into her face, " and you shouldn't have said those things to Ron either, especially when you knew he was already riled up about Snape! If I hadn't interrupted, it'd have blown into a full-"

"Oh, I forgot", his voice hardened, and he crossed his arms and the crazed look seemed to return to his steely eyes, "I forgot that _precious _Ronnie should not be antagonised. _Ronnie _always needs _comforting_, doesn't he? I'm truly sorry, after all it's always about him, isn't it?"

"Draco, its not what I mea-"

He turned around from her, "I'm _sorry_," he said again. "I forgot that your world revolves around _him._ Doesn't it?"

"Draco, what is this about?", she asked him frowning. He didn't answer and still remained turned away from her.

She sighed. "If this is about what I think it's about", she said slowly, "then, we've been through this before – I told you I'm not interested in him any-"

"Yes, you _told _me," he said coldly and finally turned around to look at her. "Then tell me one more thing- did you tell _him _that?"

Hermione coloured up a bit and cast her eyes down. Draco snorted.

"But- but I _am _going to tell him! I was just waiting for-" she said in a rush.

"Waiting?" he asked raising an elegant eyebrow. "Waiting for what – a meteor shower? For Merlin to come back from his grave? If you really _wanted _to tell him, you'd have told him by now!"

"Heavens, Draco!" she said loudly, her patience finally snapping. "I'll tell him, OK?! But I'm getting tired of you behaving like this every time! You're making me feel guilty for no reason at all!"

Draco snarled furiously and stormed out of the corridor. She stood watching after him angrily, then left for the Transfiguration class. She muttered an apology to Professor McGonagall and immersed herself into practicing the new spell she was teaching in an attempt to distract herself from angry thoughts.

OoOoOoO

A/N : First of..lemme say how sorry I truly am for updating so late, I have some pretty good excuses : I was working on plots of three fics, including this one; grappling with the monstrosity that working with Photoshop is, which, initially I thought was a piece o' cake for Yours Truly Overconfident Deluded Dud(_now my brain is in scrambles … all you graphic designers are GOD! I'd lick your boots! No- seriously, I would_); hiding from a friend; wondering what the _hell's _wrong with my hair – its straight one day and curly the next!; being obsessed with the brand new T.V (_I tried snogging it the other day!_); bleu blah blah bleu… I know you people don't give a damn…so anyhoo…

Well, the number of people adding this to their alert list had me squirming guiltily, so here I am! Also some of you have said that the last chap went "too fast". Personally, I thought that it was a good way to narrate the events…well anyway, for those of you who said they wanted more romance, I'm planning on making the next chaps longer and more mushier! (_yay_!) hope that makes you happy.

To my dear, lovely reviewers :

_**xxxxcrazychickxxxx : **__Thank you sooo much for reviewing, almost for every chap! A cyber hug to you, for keeping the writer in me inspired!_

_**Nangini : **__I am thrilled that you liked my story so far! And as to where the romantic scenes were, as I said above, the foll chaps will (hopefully) be a lot mushier!_

_**Purpleeyednekoyoukai :**__Thanx a ton for reviewing! I am glad you liked my 'boggart' idea! (feels smug)!_

_**kibagaaralover18 :**__ glad you liked it! Keep reading and reviewing!_

_**ICY192 :**__ Don't forget to review! __:)_

_**GilbertDrone328 : **__glad you liked the story so far, and yeah, they are an (un)official couple – for now! Keep reading to find out more!_

_**Kimlovesjasperhale : **__muah! For reviewing! _

_**SnobbelinafromSweden : **__thrilled, absolutely thrilled that you like it!_

_**Mrs.Potter :** (whoops, somehow missed thnkin you the first time i posted this-my bad!) Thank you so so so very much! and i'm so happy that i may have a small miniscule part in inspiring you to write! :) good luck!_

_**Murgy31 : **__thank you so much for your reviews! __:)_

_**micemuncher :**__your review made me squeal with joy! (squeal)!! Keep R & R ing!_

_**SWeeT-LoST-SouL :**__ hey your first fic too? Cool! I've read it and think it's a really good original idea! But it made me sad to see Hermione in so much anguish… Good luck with your story! _

_**sailorashes : **__you loved it? Yay! (gives 100 watt smile) oh, and keep bribing! ;)_

_**XqueseraseraX : **__Thanx for reviewing! Possessive Draco is the cutest, isn't he?! __:)_

_**AR802 :**__ (squeal) thank u!! keep reading!_

_**cemicool : **__hey! You think my writing doesn't "suck"! yeah-hoo!! (does the conga) keep reading my friend!_

_**Lana-Brooke :**__ thanx! Oh, I'm gonna try and make you happy with the next chappies! __:)_

_**Banana Caramel Frappucino : **__your review truly made my day! Thank you sooo much for that "constructive criticism"! __:)__ and I'm __**ecstatic **__that you liked the last chappie and rightly understood my reasons for writing it that way ! Loads of cyber hugs, kisses and pineapple pastries(my fav) for you! tc._

_**Love-matcher : **__thanx a lot for the review! I hope you keep reading!_

_**mahzie :**__ there, I've updated! Hope that makes you happy! __:)_

_**And for all you guyz, who've favourited or added my story to their alert list, I'm really flattered and can't thank you enough! May your days be filled with an endless supply of chips and chocolate cake! :)**_


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer :

_Ten Galleons and seven Sickles is all I've got_

_And most of it was spent on the things I bought:_

_Eyes of Beetles and Boomslang skin,_

_Unicorn tears and other Potion things,_

_Books, Parchment and Quills two,_

_And a model of Jupiter's many moons,_

_A Fanged Frisbee and a Chocolate Frog,_

_Owl Treats and a leash for a three-headed dog,_

_And the rest I spent on Twenty Quidditch cards._

_So, see I haven't got even a Knut to spare,_

_I now regret that I spent without a care._

_So, how with Miss Rowling can I bargain_

_To let me own, at least, the Hogwarts' train?_

_Alas! My vault (number Seven Hundred and Seventy-Two) is very bare_

_And Gringotts says that it won't lend me even a single Goblin's hair!_

_So, I watch as my dreams of owning this wonderful Magical World_

_Go down the drain behind Kraftincott & Sons Thaumaturgy Store_

_(Proudly been in Diagon Alley since the year Fourteen Hundred and Thirty-Four) _

_Where everything from Cockatrice eggs to Invisibility Cloaks are sold. _

_xxx_

Chapter Fourteen :

Hermione didn't see Draco again until that afternoon's Advanced Arithmancy class. He sauntered into the classroom just before bell rang for the start of the class, saw Hermione sitting in the front bench and marched straight to the very back of the room, without sparing another glance at her.

Hermione fumed and gritted her teeth. She forced herself to concentrate solely on the subject being taught and, towards the end of class, had earned a total of twenty-five House points for solving correctly, in record time, all of the seven Trans-Subsentuary Equations that Professor Vector had set them.

Feeling slightly cheerful, she headed to the Great Hall for lunch. She sat down in an empty seat between Harry and Neville, both of whom were guffawing about something.

"What's up guys?" she asked, reaching for a chicken casserole.

"Hey, Hermione!" Harry grinned at her. "Ron was just entertaining us."

"Yeah!" Neville exclaimed looking at Ron, who was sitting opposite them. "Show her Ron!"

Hermione raised her brows and looked over at Ron, who seemed to be in a lot better spirits than he was in the morning. Still grinning, he put down his fork; he picked up his wand beside his plate and pointed it at his hair. His ginger, ruffled hair suddenly slicked back so tightly that his forehead and eyebrows lifted up a little. He then put on a ridiculous smirk that seemed more to contort his face into a grotesque expression. He brought his hands up to his shoulders and put on an even more ridiculous whiny and simpering voice.

"Oooh, look at me", he sang batting his lashes and flapping his hands, "I'm Dra-a-co Malfoy! I'm a slimy git and look like an albino ferret! And ooooh, I'm also the _Hea_-_ed_ _Bo_-_uy_!", Ron patted his head, "only because Daddy dearest must have bribed the school authorities! Oooh, I loooove Daddy, even though I know that he is a bigger slimy git who belongs in Azkaban!" Ron flapped his hands again.

Hermione stared at him for a full minute then went back to cutting up her chicken.

"Aww, Hermione! You didn't laugh!" Ron whined; Harry and Neville had relapsed into laughter.

"Oh," Hermione looked up coldly at him again. "Ha ha, Ron. Very mature," she said sarcastically.

"_C'mon!_" Ron said. "It's just Malfoy!"

"I'm just saying that you shouldn't make fun of people behind their backs like that," she said dryly; Harry and Neville sobered up.

"You're a party pooper, Hermione," Ron said picking up his fork again after removing the spell on his hair. "People like _Malfoy _don't deserve being nice to."

Hermione stopped herself from grimacing and went back to eating her lunch. She felt as though Ron had insulted _her_; she felt like she should've stood up for Draco, but didn't what Ron had said hold a little bit of truth?

"And speaking of the devil…." Harry said quietly from beside her. Hermione lifted her head up again and saw Draco enter the Hall; again he diligently avoided eye contact with her and sped past to the Slytherin table. Hermione sighed softly to herself, and finished her lunch in a few hurried gulps, announced that she was going to the library, swung her bag onto her shoulders and departed, wishing to be alone for a while.

She spread out her work on the usual table in her favourite corner of the library, and was soon absorbed in doing Rune Translations in the N.E.W.T. practice test papers.

And that was how Draco found her : sprawled half onto the table, her nose almost an inch away from a rather large book that looked like a dictionary, her hair falling messily onto her shoulder and covering a side of her face and stacks of notes almost covering the entire work space. She was so absorbed into her work that she didn't even notice when he quietly took the seat in front of her. He stared at her hand, which was busily scribbling notes from the book, for a moment. His gaze moved on to her chestnut hair, the crests of the curls reflecting the torch light, then moved to her face, a slight crease between her eye brows as she concentrated, and then to her eye lids. Her eyes were cast down reading the translations of the Runes, but he knew that they were a warm chocolate brown colour and sometimes spoke more of her emotions than she would have uttered through her lips.

And he remembered how those eyes had widened this morning and there was almost _fear_ in them before it was replaced by anger. He felt a twinge, that may have been guilt, as he thought how scared she had looked at that moment. He didn't know why he had reacted the way he had in the morning; he just remembered that he had seen the way she was comforting that red-haired pillock, and had felt a violent fury gripping his heart; and also something else (_fear_ may be? But fear of what, he didn't know) clenching his heart more painfully. He hadn't meant to shout at her, or even accuse her like that, but it seemed that in that moment he had almost been blind to all reason. He had been feeling more and more guilty as the morning passed, more so when he saw her depart speedily without eating much of her lunch; he thought that it was because of him. And so finally, after overcoming his own stubbornness and gathering all his courage, he had set about to find her and, this was the more difficult part, _apologize _(an act that was a rarity in his life to say the least)to her. It hadn't been too difficult to find her really, as he had felt sure that she'd predictably be holed up in the library; and he was right.

He waited another five minutes for her to realize his presence, but she didn't lift her head even once. So, finally, he cleared his throat; she looked up, her brow furrowed, saw who it was and narrowed her eyes.

"What?" she barked.

Draco tried giving her one of his winsome smiles; she glared at him. So, he cleared his throat again nervously.

"I… erm…wanted to..er.."

Hermione raised her brows.

"I – I wanted to say that I er am sorry for- for what happened this morning," Draco cast his eyes to the table, seeming to be highly interested in the wood patterns. He waited for her to speak, but a few moments past and there was no word uttered. He looked up at her and saw that she had gone back to her work. He felt a bit annoyed.

"What? Don't you have anything to say? I just said I was sorry!"

"Oh, thank you so much for apologising," she said still not looking up at him. "Now, you may leave."

Draco huffed and narrowed his gray eyes at her bent head.

" 'You may leave'? I just said _sorry_ and that's all you've got to say! Granger, let me tell you that I've never apologised to anyone else before!" he said indignantly.

Hermione finally looked up at him and narrowed her eyes too. "Oh, I feel _so _honoured!" she got up from her chair. "Draco Malfoy, His Royal Highness, has just apologised to a lowly girl!"

With a sweep of her wand all her books and parchment stacked into a neat pile, "Yeah!", she continued sarcastically, "I feel on top of the bloody world!"

She stuffed the pile into her book bag and before Draco could even open his mouth to comment, she had stormed out of the library, with her hair billowing behind her.

Draco closed his mouth furiously and counted from one to hundred to calm himself down. He then slumped back into his chair and sighed. This was harder than he had thought it would be. Still, he wasn't going to give up so easily! He had just apologised, what may have been for the third or fourth time in his life, and he'd be damned before letting that go to waste!

Plus, also that he had never felt like this before for anyone else in his life, save for his mother. Why she had such an effect on him, he did not know. Or may be he just refused to understand, because whenever his mind brought up the matter, his heart beat rather painfully, and – and that feeling of fear rose up within him again. Just like it was now, threatening to drown him in it, with his many secrets, his many devils bearing down on him, suffocating him…

Draco shook his head forcefully, trying to get a grip on himself again. Now, was not the time to dwell on such things, he'd think about them later. Yes, _later_, when he would be able to summon all his courage to inspect his own feelings, to know what really lay within his heart….. Yes, later, he could see his true self in the mirror; he'd have plenty of time to be disgusted at what festered at the bottom of his soul… Yes, later, sounded good.

Draco dug his face into his hands, closing his eyes tightly so that darkness enclosed him.

He'd have plenty of time _later_. But the present, he didn't want to lose the present. He didn't want to lose even a second of the present; he had decided that that night, he had promised that to his own heart; he had made a pact with that another heart, under the stars….

Draco stood up, took a moment to compose himself and determinedly headed out of the library doors.

_xxx_

He closed the door softly behind him and mentally awarded himself a pat on the back for guessing correctly again. He stood for a moment on the threshold and put on his trademark smirk. He then put both his hands into his trouser pockets and swaggered into the room, in what he thought would be in a devastatingly sexy manner. But for all the notice she seemed to take of him, he could have rather just hopped like a bunny across the room. Nevertheless he continued his strut and came to a stop at the small comfy couch that he had himself transfigured a couple of weeks ago, on which she was sitting at the moment, continuing her work from the library when he had interrupted her.

And again, she did not look up at him. She was sitting at the other end of the couch and her ginger cat lay sprawled in the centre. He was still not on much familiar terms with monster feline, so it was with much apprehension that he sat down on the end of the couch, beside it. The cat opened its eyes lazily and mewled as he restlessly shifted his position on the couch: he hadn't transfigured the couch perfectly, one end of it was extremely lumpy – and he was currently sitting on that end. He shifted again to make himself a little comfortable. The cat purred again, apparently annoyed at him. He finally settled down and looked over at her; she ignored him. He tried a different approach.

He hesitantly (after mentally determining to wash his hand until it was raw) extended his arm and patted the ginger monster's head. Doing his best not to cringe and run away to his room, he said in a falsely cheerful voice, "Hello, you great big furball! How are you this evening?"

He glanced at her, but she still refused to look at him and seemed to be engrossed in her book, though he noticed that her eyes were moving over the same line again and again. He smirked. The cat seemed to regard him with big glowing eyes, swishing his tail.

"So you furry orange monst-"

"His _name _is _Crookshanks!_" she said through gritted teeth, still staring into her book. His smirk widened.

"Yeah, so you _enormous_ ginger ball er Crookyshanks, let me tell you what happened today. See, I behaved like a total idiot in the morning and then felt really bad about what I did. Really, Crooksharks, I really did. So, being a first rate fellow that I am", she snorted loudly, the cat closed its eyes and lay down to sleep, "ahem, so as I was saying Crankshanks, being a first rate fellow that I _am_, I tried apologising. And do you _know _what she said after I said I was sorry, Crooked-?"

"Crookshanks, will you be kind enough to tell Mr. Malfoy that no one is interested in hearing what he has to say?" she said, finally looking up at him.

"Oh no, I think someone _is _interested in what I have to-"

"And will you also tell him", she interrupted him loudly, "that he is a first rate _arse_, and that he can go and stuff himself _and _his stupid apology now?"

"Cookshanks, will _you_ tell Ms. Granger, that I think she's quite a mad cuckoo to be talking to a _sleeping _cat!"

"_You _are the one who started speaking to a _cat _in the first place!" she cried angrily shutting her book.

"Oh, so you're speaking to me now?" he asked mildly.

"Aaargh!" she screamed in frustration and stood up digging her fingers into her hair; her book fell down with a _thump!_

He stood up calmly and folded his arms, looking at her.

She advanced on him and clutched the front of his robes, shaking him with every word, "_you are an INSUFFERABLE GIT, Draco Malfoy!_"

"Calm down, Hermione!" he gripped her hands and tried to pull them free from his robes. "You'll ruin my new school robes!"

With another frustrated shriek, she let go of him and whirled around, her shoulder muscles clenched tightly. He was straightening his robes when she turned around again, her hair flying around her.

"You can't just say 'sorry' and expect that I'll be ok with it!" she shouted. "I am _not _ok with it, you great prat! Not everything can be fixed with a sorry! You annoying, stupid idiotic little pale fer- _mmphh!_"

Well, Draco could only think of only one way to shut her up – _he_ _kissed her!_

"_mmphh – pphhhmmm—hmmpptthh—mph!………_" evidently she _didn't_ want to be shut up.

…..

…..

"…._mmmm….mm…_"

(giggles)

".._mmm…_"

(A loud indignant_ meow!_)

(An even louder yelp)

"Oh, Crookshanks! Sorry – didn't see you there!"

"Aaaaargghhhh!"

"Shut up, Draco! Poor Crookshanks! Poor baby! Are you hurt?"

"Hermione! That monster just mauled me!"

"Oh, phooey! Its just a little scratch! After all you did sit on him!"

"Just- JUST a little scratch?! I'm bleeding to death here! I'm infected! I can see the cuts turn green! I'm going to die!"

"Oh, just stop the theatrics, why don't you? Here, I'll fix that (touches with wand)..There! As good as new!"

"As good as new??(incredulous stare) Your cat _mauled me!_"

"Oh, phooey!(rolls eyes) Now, come here to mama, baby. No, not _you!_ I meant Crookshanks!"

(A long sad, suffering _meow!_)

"There, there. It'll be ok.(picks cat up) I'll tuck you into my bed, ok?"

(Cat seems to give the blond a triumphant, evil look from his mistress' arms.)

(Draco is stunned.)

(Hermione returns from bedroom.)

"Hermione, your cat is a Slytherin! He's evil to the core!"

"Oh, phooey! Crookshanks is a sweet little angel!"

"No, really! Believe me! That cat of yours just gave me a-"

"Now, where were we?" (seductive tone)

"- a really evil loo—what? Oh! Why I don't I _show _you, where we were?"

"hmm, good idea."

(giggles)

…..

…..

_xxx_

Thank you sooo much for the reviews guyz! I was so happy that people are still interested in this story! :)

What do you think of this chapter?

R & R!!


	15. Chapter 15

A/N : sorry for being such a lazy arse and updating this so late! And ooh, I wrote this chap mainly for cheering myself up from a rather tetchy mood! ;)

Just put on a spunky, jazzy tune (or wateve) and read it, k? :)

Disclaimer :

_Oh, blimey! I can' b'lieve it!_

_Ya lots a'tually readin' mine fanfic!_

_I'm so chuff'd tha' it calls fer a drink!_

_Le's go ter Hog's Head and give 'em hags a cheeky wink!_

_--Bong Sewer--_

* * *

Chapter Fifteen :

_--These days I always wonder_

_What magic spell am I under?--_

She's waiting outside the door, tapping her toothbrush against her arm. She yawns widely and stretches her back against the door, her eyes fall on the snake-shaped silver clock sitting on the table; she squints at the green numerical figures flashing in the serpent's eyes – its half past seven. He's been in there for the past half an hour! She grips her toothbrush agitatedly – if he doesn't hurry up, she's going to be late for class! She whirls around and pounds on the wood with her toothbrush clutching fist.

"Come out! You've been there for ages! I have to brush my teeth too, you know!"

No reply.

She takes a deep calming breath; she looks again at the green-eyed serpent over her shoulder and begins to pound even more loudly on the door; apparently that calming breath hasn't done much to calm her.

"Draco Abraxas Malfoy! You get out of there this instant!"

"..nnngh!...Go away Granger! I'm kind of busy here!"

"Come out, you prat! Merlin help you if I am late for class because of you!"

"Her–(_ptooey_!)-mione Jean Granger! I told you to go away – I'm not done yet! (_gargle_-_gargle_-_ptooey_!) Go to the Prefect bathroom, if you have to – I don't care!"

"Oh…!" she screams in frustration and stamps her bare foot on the carpeted floor; she clenches her jaw in determination and hurries to her bedroom. After a few minutes she returns to the still locked door and with a slightly sadistic expression on her face points a thin piece of wood at the door knob; there is a soft click and with a grim smile, with her pink toothbrush held like a spear in her hand, she turns the knob slowly and throws the door open with a _crash!_

"Aaaarrghhh!"

_--I'll do 'nything that you'll ask me to_

_Should I tap-dance or get you the silver moon?--_

Noises of a scuffle come from within the room and then with a loud yelp a figure is thrown out unceremoniously onto the floor. Next a toothbrush comes flying out and bounces atop the figure's head. "_Ow!"_ A fluffy towel is dumped on the head. The figure sits up painfully with a groan and picks up the toothbrush that was a flying missile a second ago. The door closes with a _bang!_ The figure sighs and then begins to grumble loudly while rubbing the top of its head, dark thoughts of vengeance forming in its brain. Just then the door opens and a small bottle is lobbed at its head again, but there's no damage done as the missile is successfully caught safely in a hand.

"There! I thought you needed that too, after all we don't want to scare the First years now, do we?"

The door closes again.

The figure stands up with a grunt and hobbles its way to the dorm door, to go to the Prefect's bathroom two floors above. With one hand it removes the green towel from its head, tousling the silver blond locks even more, so that it sticks out everywhere in a fashion reminiscent of the thatch that sits atop the head of a certain annoying be-speckled idiot; the other hand clutching a bottle of _'Léon's Best Qualité Hair Gel'_. The figure mournfully patters along the cold stone floor, thinking sadly about the time that seemed to be the distant past now, about how he had always got _what_ he wanted and _when _he wanted it. He was the king of his own castle; he could be as stubborn and irrational as he liked. Those were good times, _sigh, _good times.

_--I crave for your gentle touch_

_Life without you won't be much_

_My eyes refuse to leave you_

_What, pray, is so special 'bout you?--_

He idly pushes the food around his plate. He has his head cocked slightly to a side; his eyes glowing a little, staring somewhere in the distance. If anyone of his fellow Slytherins had noticed him, they'd probably think that he was musing about some new diabolical plan – a plan to conquer the whole world and lord over it, to be specific – something any self-respecting Slytherin ought to do occasionally to keep in touch with his innate 'Slytherin-ness'. But Draco Malfoy isn't thinking anything along those lines. In fact he isn't thinking about the world around him at all; his brain and eyes are transfixed on someone sitting at a table beneath the red and gold banner of Gryffindor. A rushing is filling his ears as he focuses specifically on how the figure is biting into a luscious red apple, the lips stained a little with the juice. Those soft pink lips somehow become magnified in his mind's eye and he wills his brain cells to store the image in the long term memory vault. So, yeah, plans of taking over the world can wait for some other time…

"Er, Harry why is Malfoy staring at you like that?"

"What, Ron? What did you say?"

"I said Malfoy's staring at you."

"……._what?!_"

"He is. And I _really _don't like that look in his eyes…."

"……….Hermione, _what_ is Ron talking about?! Hermione! - _Why are you laughing?!_"

"Careful, Hermione, you'll choke on that apple…."

_--My eyes seek you out in a crowded room_

_Smiling to myself, I hope to kiss you soon--_

"Draco, honey! _What _in the world are you eating?!"

"…uhh…?"

He looks down into his plate : the scrambled eggs are swimming in pancake syrup and coffee.

"I'm eating _food_, Pansy. Are you stupid _and _blind now?"

"_ewww!_ Are you really going to eat that?!"

"Yes. I happen to like my eggs like this, any problem?"

He puts a spoonful of the muck into his mouth and tries very hard to suppress the urge to throw up on Pansy's disgusted face. He gulps it down and then forces himself to eat another spoonful. He watches with some mild satisfaction as Pansy rushes off to the nearest loo to throw up. He puts down his spoon and delicately wipes his mouth with a napkin – a Malfoy _never _forgets his manners – then proceeds to follow after Pansy to regurgitate the contents of his stomach. Yes, taking over the world can wait.

_--Me and you,_

_We are just so fine_

_But, ooh it's so clandestine!--_

He is flying gracefully over the pitch; his eyes narrowed, looking for that elusive golden shimmer; his silver hair glinting in the sunlight. Out of the corner of his eye he spots a bushy brown mane at the far end of the stands. He smirks to himself. He spies the snitch skimming over the green grass of the pitch; he lowers his broomstick and almost lazily scoops up the winged-ball into his hand. The green blurs in the sky stop their flight and cheer. He smirks again and disembarks, tossing the broomstick over his shoulder; he swaggers over to the stands and climbs up to where the brunet is sitting.

"How come you're at the Slytherin practice, Granger?" he says cockily and combs back his blond hair with his fingers. "You're spying for Potter now, are you? Potter finally realised that you need someone with a brain (like me) to come up with a strategy?"

She looks up from the book she was reading and sneers at him.

"Sorry to burst your delusional bubble, Malfoy," she says with a small playful smile. "Harry doesn't need to spy on you. His Quidditch strategies are way better than yours."

His cocky grin slips off his face, but he hitches it up just after a nano-second. Putting on a roguish smile he says, "Then why are you here, Granger? Admit it, you just came because you like to watch me look all sexy in my green Quidditch uniform!"

She looks on amused. "In your dreams, Malfoy! Actually, I think you rather look like pale cheese with green mould on it!"

The rest of the Slytherin team members, who had gathered around hovering on their broomsticks to listen to the exchange between their Captain and the Know-it-all Gryffindor, nearly burst out laughing but smother it up hurriedly as their Captain gives them the death glare. The team hastily departs and resumes their practice. The Captain crosses his arms and glares petulantly at the girl.

"_That's it!_ We're through! I never want to see you or speak to you again! Never – ever-!"

She laughs amusedly and gives him a peck on the cheek.

"Oh, Draco! You look so _cute_ and adorable when you're angry! See you back in the dorm!"

"_Hey! _Not fair – come back here! I'm not done! I'm serious – I'm never speaking to you again!"

She laughs and waves her arm as she descends the steps and heads for the castle doors.

"And I'm _not cute!_" he mutters to himself, as he rejoins his team for the practice.

_--After all between Love and Hate_

_It is but a fine line_

_Ooh, it's so clandestine!--_

The corridors are deserted, dark and silent. They are walking side by side, holding hands. The Head Boy batch on his chest glints in the light from one of the torches. A fuzzy shadow appears on the wall in front of them, they squint their eyes at it. The shadow grows larger and larger and the source of it comes around the corner – it's Mrs. Norris, her eyes glowing like embers of coal, she purrs and prowls towards them. He narrows his eyes at the cat and attempts to shoo her away by aiming a kick at it. "_Draco!_" the girl reprimands as the cat jumps aside hissing and runs away into the darkness. He smirks in a self satisfied way. The girl continues to scold him, "Really Draco, was that necessary? Filch can swoop down on us at any instant!"

"Hermione, relax. You worry too much. And anyway, I always wanted to kick that stupid spying cat – actually I wanted to kick Filch more, but …"

The girl sighs and the boy smiles and puts his arm around her. He brings his face close to hers and gently kisses her; she smiles against his lips –

"OH HO!!"

They jump up a mile and watch in dismay as Peeves, the poltergeist, does a joyful twirl in the air – apparently happy for a chance to get a them in trouble. He flips upside down and twiddles his toes as he sings :

"Lookie, lookie, what we have here,

It's the Gryffindor Beaver and the Slytherin Ferret ,

Smooching in the halls without fear or regret!

Smoochie, smoochie-slurpy, slurpy"

He gives one of his loud cackles.

Draco, enraged, attempts to punch the sneering face. Hermione holds him back and whispers desperately to Poltergeist, who is sticking his tongue out at Draco.

"Peeves! _Ssshhh! Please!_ Please don't yell--"

"Smoochie smoochie!" Peeves puckers his lips at her.

"Why you little--" Draco jumps forward to punch Peeves' nose.

Peeves whizzes upwards towards the ceiling, rights himself up and takes a deep breath.

Hermione says, "Please Peeves! Don't-"

"HEAD BOY AND HEAD GIRL ARE INDULGING IN INAPPROPRIATE ACTS IN THE CORRIDOR! MALFOY AND GRANGER ARE K-I-S-S-I-N-G!!"

The two look at each other in dismay, absolutely distraught at the situation, as they hear a door slam in the distance and hurrying footsteps coming towards them and a purr of a cat. Peeves blows a loud wet raspberry and departs cackling madly.

"Malfoy and Granger snogging! Making out! Wait 'til the whole school hears!!"

The two look after him with wide, horrified eyes.

_--No one knows that you are mine_

_So, shhh! _

_Its just so clandestine!--_

OoOoOo

A/N : Just a note to let you know that I wrote the last two chaps back to back, and that is the reason why I couldn't thank you wonderful readers/reviewers then. But don't think that your reviews don't mean a thing to me- coz they do! Every single one of 'em means a lot to me! Who knew I could actually write a story? No, correction: who knew I could actually write a story that people would read?! :)

Thank you so much for the reviews! I sound like a broken record, don't I? ;D

My amazing readers n reviewers** :-**

_**PrettyinPink-5764**__**:**__I know that the initial chaps are too short. Well, in the beginning I was in a hurry to put up everything that I had written down, so I kinda chopped it into chapters depending on how much I had typed until my patience lasted. I actually thought of going back and merging chaps, but that'd be really messy, and I'm kinda hard pressed for time now..i may do it later on…so..anyhoo, thnx for reviewing! Look at me rambling on and on! But I just wanted to explain the reason to everyone! :) And, yeah, that really is a funny phrase, innit? :D_

_**Xxxxcrazychickxxxx : **__well, what can I say? You're amazing! Thnx for reading! Glad you liked the fluff part! Consider it my gift to you for still staying with the story!:)_

_**Murgy31 :**__ what can I say? I'm here to please thee! Lol! Anywaz, thnx for the reviews!_

_**GilbertDrone328 :**__ thank you! :) keep reading!_

_**Nangini :**__ hey, we wouldn't enjoy Dramione as much if they weren't a few clashes, now would we? ;) Anywaz thnx for the reviews! And your wish is my command! Lol!_

_**CaNdY-FlOsS-07: **__yikes!that's the first time, I think, anyone has ever said that I'm an 'amazing' writer!! Yikes! …..(goes to do the 'Happy Dance' in the hallway-knocks a vase down by one of her flailing arms-is yelled at-doesn't care-too HAPPY!)_

_**cemicool :**__ hey, I've got two left feet, so it doesn't matter what dance I do, coz I pretty much always looks like a gorilla doing mime!? Glad you found the last chap funny, I had too much fun writing it, especially the last part. (Actually the scene looks much more hilarious in my head!!) ;D oh, and the choc cake's on my tab! Enjoy!_

_**kristy : **__thnx a ton for reviewing! :) and I'm really sorry if I've inadvertently made some of the dialogues more American than British(looks sheepish)…I'm neither British NOR Irish, so I'm really not familiar with some of their expressions…(so, if anyone of you guyz IS familiar, plz plz just point out the things that need to be corrected)Thank you, for pointing that out, kristy! :)_

_**La Mariposa3795 : **__(very long, very girly squeal!) yay! Thnx! I've changed the story summary to the line that made you 'laugh so hard'!! :D_

_**dramione127**__**: **__wow! Thnx!! xxxooooxxx!! Lol! Again, as I said above, your wish my, dear reviewer, is my command! :)_

_**malfoyie456 : **__Glad you liked it, my friend! Keep reading and, oh don't forget to review! ;)_

_**whatifgirl :**__hehe, thnx. :)_

_**ribbon-dancer-tenten :**__ I saw your review just before posting this and I can only say that I am sooo flattered! Thnx! Best compliment EVER!_

**R & R folks!**

--Bong sewer--


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